Barack Obama returns to the White House – follow live

The Senate has voted to formally begin debate on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Three Republicans, senators Collins, Murkowski, and Romney joined all Democrats in voting Yes in a 53:47 vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer then filed cloture on the nomination, setting up a vote for Thursday.

Former President Barack Obama tweets: “The Affordable Care Act is an example of why you run for office – not just to occupy a seat, but to make a difference in people’s lives.”

He adds: “Today I’m joining @POTUS and @VP at the White House to celebrate everything the ACA has achieved, and help make it even better.”

Going deeper into the passing of the ACA Mr Obama recalls: “Passing the ACA was incredibly difficult. People who had coverage were worried about losing it, the media was skeptical, misinformation was flying around, and Republicans showed no interest in working with us. But Joe, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and I were determined.”

“Because so many people made sacrifices and some members of Congress took courageous votes, we got the ACA across the finish line. Now, more than 30 million Americans have health coverage, and 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions can’t be dropped or denied coverage,” he continues. “The ACA also lowered prescription drug costs for 12 million seniors, and allowed young people to stay on their parents’ plan. And it’s eliminated lifetime limits on benefits that often put people in a jam.”

“But the ACA was never perfect, and we always knew we would have to make it better,” the former president admits. “That’s what @POTUS has done since taking office. Today, he’s going even further – lowering premiums for nearly 1 million people and helping 200,000 more uninsured Americans get access to coverage.”

Mr Obama concludes: “Progress often feels slow, and victories are sometimes incomplete. But the ACA shows that if you believe that we can improve people’s lives, and if you’re willing to work through obstacles and continually improve, you can make America better.”

As he departed for Brussels, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated what Joe Biden and various other administration officials have been stressing in recent days: that the horrific violence in the Ukrainian town of Bucha was “not the random acts of a rogue unit” but “a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities”.

“The reports are more than credible,” he said. “The evidence is there for the world to see.”

Watch below:

Barack Obama’s visit to the White House for an Obamacare-themed event later today has some Democrats hopeful that the former president can provide a bit of uplift to his relatively unpopular former vice president.

According to The Hill, one party strategist is hopeful for a much-needed “jolt of energy” – though another warned that “no one should be anticipating Obama magically solving all of our problems”.

Read the full report here.

An upcoming book that looks at the Biden administration’s first year carries a choice quote from Joe Biden about the influence of Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire media mogul who birthed Fox News and who has long wielded outsize influence in much of the Anglophone world.

As Shweta Sharma reports,

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Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs has the news that along with an already announced shipment of Switchblade drones, the Biden administration is going to send the Ukrainian military another, larger model of the weapon that can carry anti-tank warheads.

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After Joe Biden insisted to reporters that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and should face a war crimes trial over his military’s actions in Ukraine, his administration continued to make the point that what has been seen in Bucha and elsewhere does not appear to be the actions of “rogue” soldiers.

State Department spokseman Ned Price insisted that the mass rapes, torture and killings are “part of a broader, troubling campaign” by the Russians, while National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the atrocities are “part of the plan” for Ukraine that Mr Putin has laid out.

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Huffpost reports that at today’s Obamacare event featuring Joe Biden’s former boss – Mr Obama’s first public White House appearance since the end of his presidency – the administration will announce a change to the healthcare programme that could see prices lowered for as many as 1 million Americans while offering coverage to 200,000 who are still uninsured.

Joe Biden upped the ante yesterday with impromptu remarks to a reporter reflecting on the Russian military’s atrocities in Bucha, a town near Kyiv.

“You may remember I got criticised for calling Putin a war criminal,” the president said. “Well, the truth of the matter – we saw it happen in Bucha – this warrants him – he is a war criminal.

“But we have to gather the information. We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue to fight and we have to get all the detail so this could be – actual have a war crimes trial. This guy is brutal and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it.”

Below, you can read a dispatch from Bucha by The Independent’s correspondent Kim Sengupta.