US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Monday announced he has tested positive for Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated, news wires reported. The South Carolina Senator said he started having "flu-like symptoms" on Saturday night and went to the doctor on Monday, adding he would be quarantining for 10 days.

A preponderance of evidence proves the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic leaked from a Chinese research facility, said a report by US Republicans released on Monday, Reuters reported, noting that the US intelligence agencies have not reached such a conclusion. The report cited "ample evidence" that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists - aided by US experts and Chinese and US government funds - were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans and such manipulation could be hidden.

US President Joe Biden announced higher targets related to protection of environment. He revised previous ambitions and called big car makers to accept voluntarily his aim to increase the share of electric vehicles in their overall car sales to 40% by 2030, Reuters reported. The administration of the White House is expected next week to introduce new tighter rules related to the decrease of greenhouse gases by 2026.

President Joe Biden called on states, territories and local governments to do more to incentivise Covid-19 vaccination by offering $100 to those who get vaccinated and reimbursing small- and medium-sized businesses for offering their employees paid leave to get their family members vaccinated, news wires reported. "I know that paying people to get vaccinated might sound unfair to folks who have gotten vaccinated already. But here's the deal, if incentives help us beat this virus, I believe we should use them," Biden said on Thursday.

A roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure investment bill advanced in the US Senate on Wednesday, passing a key milestone that moves the emerging legislation toward formal debate and possible passage.

US President Joe Biden met on Wednesday with Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya at the White House, in a strong show of support for pro-democracy protesters who say she won last year's election, AFP reported. "I was honored to meet with @Tsihanouskaya at the White House this morning," Biden said in a tweet, referring to the exiled opposition figure leading the fight against strongman Alexander Lukashenko. "The United States stands with the people of Belarus in their quest for democracy and universal human rights," he added.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated his longtime aide Mark Gitenstein as ambassador to the European Union while his administration looks to prioritize relations with the 27-nation bloc, AFP reported. Gitenstein served under former president Barack Obama as ambassador to Romania, where he has ancestral ties, using his position to push against abuses of power and in favour of privatization in the young democracy.

People vaccinated against Covid-19 in high-risk parts of the United States should resume wearing masks indoors, the top health authority said Tuesday, a major reversal in guidance that underscored the country's struggle to suppress the Delta variant, AFP reported. President Joe Biden said the announcement showed that America needs to "do better" on vaccinations, adding that a vaccine mandate for the country's more than two million federal workers was now "under consideration."

An administrative court in Quito has revoked Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's Ecuadorian citizenship, news wires reported. According to the newspaper El Comercio, the court rules that administrative errors were made when citizenship was granted to Australian-born Assange in 2017.

Cuba denounced the targeting of its Paris embassy on Monday as a "terrorist attack" encouraged by the United States after the building was bombarded with Molotov cocktails, news wires reported. Firefighters in the French capital said two incendiary devices were thrown at the delegation, located in the city's 15th arrondissement, causing minor damage.