Federal government of the United States

The United States and Russia sought to lower the temperature on Jan. 21 in a heated standoff over Ukraine, even as they said no breakthrough was imminent in the crisis that has raised fears of a possible Russian invasion.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine and warned President Vladimir Putin that his country would pay a "dear price" in lives lost and a possible cutoff from the global banking system if it does.

Ljubljana – Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar has told the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee that he will visit the US on 20 December to meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss Slovenian-US cooperation.

President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin were still far apart after two hours of talks on the escalating crisis caused by Russia's massing of tens of thousands of troops near its border with Ukraine.

"We don't know if President Vladimir Putin made the decision to invade. We know that he is setting up the capacity to do so in the short term if he so decides," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quoted as saying by Reuters.

According to the police, he fired from a semi-automatic pistol.

U.S. Chief Epidemiologist and Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci reports to President Joe Biden that final information on the new version of the coronavirus Omicron will be available in two weeks, Reuters reported.

The administration of US President Joe Biden is developing plans to detect possible outbreaks of the disease across the country in connection with the discovery of the coronavirus variant Omicron. This was reported by the American newspaper Politico, citing sources among the authorities.

President Joe Biden briefly transferred power to Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 19 while he underwent a routine colonoscopy, setting up a history-making moment as Harris became the first woman to hold that authority during the short time she stepped in as acting president.

President Joe Biden opened his virtual meeting with China's Xi Jinping on Nov. 15 by saying the goal of the two world leaders should be to ensure that competition between the two superpowers "does not veer into conflict."