A key Democratic senator who has been one of the most stalwart defenders of President Biden's handling of the events in Afghanistan is willing to acknowledge that the one thing that the US government could have done differently is perhaps begin the evacuations of US and Afghan citizens sooner.

Now that Joe Biden's first face-to-face encounter with Russian leader Vladimir Putin since becoming president of the United States is in the history books, the best way to determine whether it was all for show, or if it will lead to substantive diplomatic breakthroughs, will all come down to what happens next, according to a prominent former top official with the White House National Security Council (NSC).

With hundreds dead, thousands wounded and some 34,000 Palestinians estimated to have been displaced as a result of the new fighting, Biden must step in personally, bring the leadership of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas to the United States and put all of that foreign policy acumen to work as an honest broker to establish a lasting solution based in peace -- and justice.

The US treasury secretary is proposing an international "minimum corporate tax," such that the United States and other nations potentially could raise taxes on corporations in their home countries without fear that those companies would then bolt overseas to another country with a more-favorable tax rate.

President Donald Trump's 11th-hour move to drawdown US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq drew swift and bipartisan condemnation.

If elected president this fall, Democrat Joe Biden will rejoin the Paris Accords for climate, New Mexico Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said during her address to the Democratic National Convention.

Although Donald Trump and members of his administration have been presenting US coronavirus testing in a positive light, Sen Mitt Romney (R-Utah) put it in a more accurate perspective which isn't so rosy.

The United States has not distinguished itself so far with its leadership in the international community with its response to the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus, according to Sen Mitt Romney (R-Utah). However, the nation could well redeem itself in the coming phases of the pandemic, particularly as it relates to the development of medications and vaccines to combat the virus, he added.

While Donald Trump has sharply criticized the World Health Organization's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the organization was actually ringing the early alarm on the global emergency, according to the chief of the WHO.

Researchers are racing against time to produce medicines and vaccines against the virus and the COVID-19 disease, but they are still not sure of the origins of the virus, other than it appears to have emerged first in China.