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Lloyd J. Austin III, US Secretary of Defense, has been hospitalized following a bladder problem. No further details about his condition have been released, and it is unclear whether the problem for which he was hospitalized is linked to the prostate cancer for which he is being treated. Austin, who is 70 years old, had already been hospitalized at the beginning of January, and it had created quite a political case because he had hidden from President Joe Biden that he was in the hospital. Many in the Defense Department had learned of the hospitalization when the news came out in the newspapers, and thought the secretary was on vacation. Austin later apologized for his behavior, and was discharged on January 15.