Presidency of Donald Trump

The Taliban claimed on July 9 to be in control of 85 percent of Afghanistan after seizing key border crossings with Iran and Turkmenistan, part of a sweeping offensive launched as US troops pull out of the war-torn nation.

Israel's top diplomat Yair Lapid on June 29 began the first-ever official visit by an Israeli minister to the United Arab Emirates, after the two nations normalized ties in September.

President Joe Biden on June 25 promised Afghanistan's top leaders a "sustained" partnership even as he moves to accelerate winding down the United States' longest war amid escalating Taliban violence.

Former President Donald Trump's struggle with COVID-19 was "far more serious" than the public knew, and officials leapfrogged protocol for an experimental drug treatment not available to other Americans, according to a new book by Washington Post reporters.

A technical delegation from the United States Department of Defense will visit Turkey on June 24 to discuss the activities for keeping the Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan operational.

Turkey proposed to secure and manage the airport in Kabul after the NATO troops end its mission as a Resolute Support Mission.

Highly contagious coronavirus variants are fuelling a surge in infections in Africa, the World Health Organization warned on June 17, while in Europe more governments eased their pandemic restrictions.

US President Joe Biden is due to meet top EU officials on Tuesday as they try to set common goals for global challenges such as the pandemic and what they see as China's more assertive stance, dpa reported. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief Charles Michel will welcome Biden in Brussels, with a tight agenda scheduled for their talks.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has eased travel recommendations for more than 110 countries and territories, including Japan just ahead of the Olympics.

Ambassador Hakan Tekin, director general for South Asia at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, met Massoum Stanekzai, the Afghan government's top peace broker, in the Qatari capital Doha on June 8. 

According to a statement by the negotiating team in Kabul, Stanekzai and Tekin discussed ways and means to expedite the stalled peace drive.

Namely, the document states that the coronavirus "leaked" from the Institute of Virology in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
China has vehemently denied the allegations, and Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, recently added additional fuel to the fire.