WASHINGTON — The United States is devoting more than $3 billion to advance development of antiviral pills for COVID-19.

That’s according to an official briefed on the matter. The pills would be used to minimize symptoms after infection. They are in development and could begin arriving by year’s end, pending the completion of clinical trials.

The White House is scheduled to hold a briefing on its COVID-19 plans with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.

News of the administration’s plans for the pill was first reported Thursday by The New York Times. The official who confirmed the report spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/6/1560348099371.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>From the Associated PressWASHINGTON — The United States is devoting more than $3 billion to advance development of antiviral pills for COVID-19.That’s according to an official briefed on the matter. The pills would be used to minimize symptoms after infection. They are in development and could begin arriving by year’s end, pending the completion of clinical trials.The White House is scheduled to hold a briefing on its COVID-19 plans with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.News of the administration’s plans for the pill was first reported Thursday by The New York Times. The official who confirmed the report spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

Official: US to spend $3B for antiviral pills

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — For the second time in a week, Omaha police have reported the self-inflicted gunshot death of a suspect officers were pursuing. 

Police say in a news release that the latest death happened Wednesday night after officers were called for a domestic disturbance at an Elkhorn community apartment. 

Arriving officers met a man suspected in the disturbance in the apartment complex parking lot, where officers say he fired at least one round from a rifle at police before he turned the gun on himself. 

Police did not immediately give his name.

 No officers were injured in the shooting. 

The incident came after the June 10 self-inflicted gun death of another man who was being chased by Omaha officers.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — For the second time in a week, Omaha police have reported the self-inflicted gunshot death of a suspect officers were pursuing. Police say in a news release that the latest death happened Wednesday night after officers were called for a domestic disturbance at an Elkhorn community apartment. Arriving officers met a man suspected in the disturbance in the apartment complex parking lot, where officers say he fired at least one round from a rifle at police before he turned the gun on himself. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not immediately give his name. No officers were injured in the shooting. The incident came after the June 10 self-inflicted gun death of another man who was being chased by Omaha officers.

Omaha police report 2nd gun death of chased suspect in week

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to the Obama era health care law, preserving insurance coverage for millions of Americans.

<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20949627-california-v-texas" target="_blank">The justices, by a 7-2 vote, left the entire law intact</a>&nbsp;Thursday in ruling that Texas, other Republican-led states and two individuals had no right to bring their lawsuit in federal court.

The law’s major provisions include protections for people with pre-existing health conditions, a range of no-cost preventive services and the expansion of the Medicaid program that insures lower-income people, including those who work in jobs that don’t pay much or provide health insurance.

Also left in place is the law’s now-toothless requirement that people have health insurance or pay a penalty. Congress rendered that provision irrelevant in 2017 when it reduced the penalty to zero.

The elimination of the penalty had become the hook that Texas and other Republican-led states, as well as the Trump administration, used to attack the entire law. They argued that without the mandate, a pillar of the law when it was passed in 2010, the rest of the law should fall, too.

And with a more conservative Supreme Court that includes three Trump appointees, opponents of “Obamacare” hoped a majority of the justices would finally kill off the law they have been fighting against for more than a decade.

But the third major attack on the law at the Supreme Court ended the way the first two did, with a majority of the court rebuffing efforts to gut the law or get rid of it altogether.

Trump’s three appointees to the Supreme Court — Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — split their votes. Kavanaugh and Barrett joined the majority. Gorsuch was in dissent, signing on to an opinion from Justice Samuel Alito.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to the Obama era health care law, preserving insurance coverage for millions of Americans.<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20949627-california-v-texas" target="_blank">The justices, by a 7-2 vote, left the entire law intact</a>&nbsp;Thursday in ruling that Texas, other Republican-led states and two individuals had no right to bring their lawsuit in federal court.The law’s major provisions include protections for people with pre-existing health conditions, a range of no-cost preventive services and the expansion of the Medicaid program that insures lower-income people, including those who work in jobs that don’t pay much or provide health insurance.Also left in place is the law’s now-toothless requirement that people have health insurance or pay a penalty. Congress rendered that provision irrelevant in 2017 when it reduced the penalty to zero.The elimination of the penalty had become the hook that Texas and other Republican-led states, as well as the Trump administration, used to attack the entire law. They argued that without the mandate, a pillar of the law when it was passed in 2010, the rest of the law should fall, too.And with a more conservative Supreme Court that includes three Trump appointees, opponents of “Obamacare” hoped a majority of the justices would finally kill off the law they have been fighting against for more than a decade.But the third major attack on the law at the Supreme Court ended the way the first two did, with a majority of the court rebuffing efforts to gut the law or get rid of it altogether.Trump’s three appointees to the Supreme Court — Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — split their votes. Kavanaugh and Barrett joined the majority. Gorsuch was in dissent, signing on to an opinion from Justice Samuel Alito.

Supreme Court dismisses another challenge to Obamacare

GENEVA (AP) —Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin of Russia spent more than three hours discussing issues Wednesday at their summit in Geneva. They ticked through their respective lists so quickly and in such “excruciating detail,” Biden says, that they looked at each other and thought, “OK, what next?”

The most pressing issues the leaders discussed:

Biden and Putin agreed to return their respective ambassadors to Washington and Moscow in a bid to improve badly deteriorated diplomatic relations between their countries.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, left Washington in March amid a row after Biden called Putin a killer in a television interview and imposed new sanctions on Russia over its treatment of opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, flew out of Moscow in April after public suggestions from Russian officials that he should leave to mirror Antonov’s departure.

Both ambassadors were present at Wednesday’s summit.

Putin also said the Russian foreign ministry and the U.S. State Department would begin consultations on other vexing diplomatic issues, including the closures of consulates in both countries and the employment status of Russian citizens working for U.S. missions in Russia.

A senior Biden administration official said Sullivan is likely to return to Moscow next week. A different senior administration official said both governments had begun discussing consulate and local staff issues and the hope was an agreement could be reached in the next two months.

Neither administration official was authorized to comment publicly by name and both spoke on condition of anonymity.

No breakthroughs on this issue were announced, but the leaders agreed to at least talk about what has become a major source of conflict between the U.S. and Russia.

Biden said he and Putin agreed to have their experts work out an understanding about what types of critical infrastructure would be off-limits to cyberattacks. He said the U.S. presented Russia with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cisa.gov/critical-infrastructure-sectors" target="_blank">16 specific types of infrastructure,</a>&nbsp;including energy, elections, banking and water systems, and the defense industry.

The agreement comes amid a flood of ransomware attacks against U.S. businesses and government agencies, including one in May that disrupted fuel supplies along the East Coast for nearly a week. The disruption was blamed on a criminal gang operating out of Russia, which does not extradite suspects to the U.S.

Other serious incidents include the SolarWinds intrusion discovered last year in which hackers, believed by U.S. authorities to be Russian, penetrated multiple U.S. government networks and prompted Biden to impose additional U.S. sanctions against Russia.

Biden said the U.S. and Russian governments would follow up on certain criminal cases, an apparent reference to cybercriminals operating with impunity from Russian territory.

Putin agreed there is mutual interest in the subject.

Biden also made an implicit threat against Russia, saying the U.S. has “significant cyber capability” it could use against Russia if it were to interfere with U.S. critical infrastructure.

Biden and Putin instructed their diplomats to begin laying the groundwork for a new phase of arms control.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/16/u-s-russia-presidential-joint-statement-on-strategic-stability/" target="_blank">“strategic stability dialogue”&nbsp;</a>would be a series of discussions designed to set the table for a negotiation by sorting out what exactly should be negotiated. More broadly, it would aim to reduce the risk of war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

Biden said the goal is to work with Russia on “a mechanism that can lead to control of new and dangerous and sophisticated weapons that are coming on the scene now, that reduce the time for response, that raise the prospect of accidental war.” He said this was discussed in detail.

No date was announced for the start of talks.

The basic idea is to identify and sort out the many areas of disagreement over what a future arms control treaty should address. It also would address ways to avoid unintended or accidental moves that could trigger war.

Shortly after Biden took office in January, he and Putin agreed to extend until 2026 the New START treaty that limits long-range nuclear weapons. The challenge now is to work out what a potential follow-on pact would include.

The Russians insist it include defensive weapons, such as U.S. missile defense systems. The Americans argue that it should include so-called tactical nuclear weapons, which are not covered by New START and of which the Russians have a far larger number deployed. It might also include new and emerging technologies such as hypersonic missiles and space weaponry.

Biden said he raised with Putin the plight of two Americans detained in Russia.

Putin had opened the door to possible discussions about a prisoner swap with the U.S. and said those conversations would continue. Biden said he would follow up, too.

The U.S. is holding two prisoners whose release Russia has sought for more than a decade, including arms trader Viktor Bout. The other is Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was extradited from Liberia in 2010 and convicted the next year of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.

Biden said Americans Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed are being “wrongfully imprisoned” in Russia.

Whelan, who also holds Canadian, Irish and British citizenship, was arrested in Moscow in 2018, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years. Whelan says he was just visiting Moscow.

Reed was convicted of assaulting a police officer while intoxicated and sentenced to nine years. Putin, in a recent interview with NBC News, called Reed a “drunk and a troublemaker.”

Biden said he’ll continue to air with Putin concerns about basic human rights because it is a core tenet of what the United States stands for.

Biden said he couldn’t be president of the United States and not raise human rights issues during the summit with Putin. He mentioned the internationally publicized case of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

But Putin said Navalny got what he deserved when he was handed a stiff prison sentence. Navalny is Putin’s most ardent political foe. He was arrested in January after returning to Russia from Germany, where he’d spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian officials deny involvement in Nalvany’s poisoning.

Navalny received a 30-month prison sentence for violating terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement conviction he dismissed a politically motivated.

Biden pressed Putin to drop a push to close the last international humanitarian crossing into Syria, making clear the matter was of “significant importance” to the U.S.

No deal was reached to keep it open, however.

Russia is threatening to use its U.N. Security Council veto to close the aid route for millions of Syrians internally displaced by that country’s war.

Biden said Putin asked about Afghanistan and expressed a desire that peace and security be maintained there. Biden said he told Putin that a lot of that will depend on him, and that Putin indicated he was prepared to “help” on Afghanistan as well as on Iran.

Biden declined to go into further detail. Biden’s administration is mounting new efforts to get Iran to comply with the terms of a nuclear deal it had once agreed to before Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew the U.S. from the agreement the U.S. and other world powers struck with Iran in 2015.

Putin also talked about preventing a resurgence of terrorist violence in Afghanistan. Biden said it would be very much in Russia’s interest to not see that happen.

GENEVA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their summit on Wednesday with an agreement to return their nations' ambassadors to their posts in Washington and Moscow and a plan to begin work toward replacing the last remaining treaty between the two countries limiting nuclear weapons.

But the two leaders offered starkly different views on difficult simmering issues including cyber and ransomware attacks originating from Russia.

Putin insisted anew that his country has nothing to do with such attacks, despite U..S. intelligence that indicates otherwise. Biden, meanwhile, said that he made clear to Putin that if Russia crossed certain red lines — including going after major American infrastructure — his administration would respond and “the consequences of that would be devastating,”

Will Putin change his behavior? Biden was asked at a post-summit news conference.

“I said what will change their behavior is if the rest of the world reacts” in a way that “diminishes their standing in the world," Biden said. "I’m not confident of anything. I’m just stating a fact.”

Both leaders, who have stirred escalating tension since Biden took office in January, suggested that while an enormous chasm between the two nations remains the talks were constructive.

Putin said there was “no hostility” during three hours of talks, a session that wrapped up more quickly than expected.

When it was over, Putin had first crack at describing the results at a solo news conference, with Biden following soon after. Biden said they spent a “great deal of time” discussing cybersecurity and he believed Putin understood the U.S. position.

“I pointed out to him, we have significant cyber capability," Biden said. "In fact, (if) they violate basic norms, we will respond. ... I think that the last thing he wants now is a Cold War.”

Putin noted that Biden raised human rights issues with him, including the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Putin defended Navalny’s prison sentence and deflected repeated questions about mistreatment of Russian opposition leaders by highlighting U.S. domestic turmoil, including the Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Putin held forth for nearly an hour before international reporters. While showing defiance at queries about Biden pressing him on human rights, he also expressed respect for Biden as an experienced political leader.

The Russian noted that Biden repeated wise advice his mother had given him and also spoke about his family — messaging that Putin said might not have been entirely relevant to their summit but demonstrated Biden's “moral values.” Though he raised doubt that the U.S.-Russia relationship could soon return to a measure of equilibrium of years past, Putin suggested that Biden was someone he could work with.

“The meeting was actually very efficient,” Putin said. “It was substantive, it was specific. It was aimed at achieving results, and one of them was pushing back the frontiers of trust.”

Putin said he and Biden agreed to begin negotiations on nuclear talks to potentially replace the New START treaty limiting nuclear weapons after it expires in 2026.

Washington broke off talks with Moscow in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and its military intervention in support of separatists in eastern Ukraine. Talks resumed in 2017 but gained little traction and failed to produce an agreement on extending the New START treaty during the Trump administration.

The Russian president said there was an agreement between the leaders to return their ambassadors to their respective postings. Both countries had pulled back their top envoys to Washington and Moscow as relations chilled in recent months.

Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled from Washington about three months ago after Biden called Putin a killer; U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan left Moscow almost two months ago, after Russia suggested he return to Washington for consultations. Putin said that the ambassadors were expected to return their posts in the coming days.

The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning — both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.

Biden nodded when a reporter asked if Putin could be trusted, but the White House quickly sent out a tweet insisting that the president was “very clearly not responding to any one question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”

Their body language, at least in their brief moments together in front of the press, was not exceptionally warm.

The two leaders did shake hands — Biden extended his hand first and smiled at the stoic Russian leader — after Swiss President Guy Parmelin welcomed them to Switzerland for the summit. When they were in front of the cameras a few minutes later—this time inside the grand lakeside mansion where the summit was held—they seemed to avoid eye contact.

For months, Biden and Putin have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden has repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, for the jailing of Russia's foremost opposition leader and for interference in American elections.

Putin has reacted with whatabout-isms and denials — pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government hasn't been involved in any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.

In advance of Wednesday's meeting, both sides set out to lower expectations.

Even so, Biden said it would be an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability" in their relationship, a significant goal for a president who sees Russia as one of America's crucial adversaries.

Arrangements for the meeting were carefully choreographed and vigorously negotiated.

Biden first floated the meeting in an April phone call in which he informed Putin that he would be expelling several Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions against dozens of people and companies, part of an effort to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.

The White House announced ahead of the summit that Biden wouldn't hold a joint news conference with Putin, deciding it did not want to appear to elevate Putin at a moment when the U.S. president is urging European allies to pressure Putin to cut out myriad provocations.

Biden sees himself with few peers on foreign policy. He traveled the globe as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was given difficult foreign policy assignments by President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. His portfolio included messy spots like Iraq and Ukraine and weighing the mettle of China's Xi Jinping during his rise to power.

He has repeatedly said that he believes executing effective foreign policy comes from forming strong personal relations, and he has managed to find rapport with both the likes of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Biden has labeled an “autocrat,” and more conventional Western leaders including Canada's Justin Trudeau.

But with Putin, who he once said has “no soul," Biden has long been wary. At the same time, he acknowledges that Putin, who has remained the most powerful figure in Russian politics over the span of five U.S. presidents, is not without talent.

“He’s bright. He’s tough," Biden said earlier this week. “And I have found that he is a — as they say ... a worthy adversary."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1623857775069.png" alt="The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning — both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning — both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>GENEVA (AP) —Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin of Russia spent more than three hours discussing issues Wednesday at their summit in Geneva. They ticked through their respective lists so quickly and in such “excruciating detail,” Biden says, that they looked at each other and thought, “OK, what next?”The most pressing issues the leaders discussed:AMBASSADORSBiden and Putin agreed to return their respective ambassadors to Washington and Moscow in a bid to improve badly deteriorated diplomatic relations between their countries.Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, left Washington in March amid a row after Biden called Putin a killer in a television interview and imposed new sanctions on Russia over its treatment of opposition figure Alexei Navalny.John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, flew out of Moscow in April after public suggestions from Russian officials that he should leave to mirror Antonov’s departure.Both ambassadors were present at Wednesday’s summit.Putin also said the Russian foreign ministry and the U.S. State Department would begin consultations on other vexing diplomatic issues, including the closures of consulates in both countries and the employment status of Russian citizens working for U.S. missions in Russia.A senior Biden administration official said Sullivan is likely to return to Moscow next week. A different senior administration official said both governments had begun discussing consulate and local staff issues and the hope was an agreement could be reached in the next two months.Neither administration official was authorized to comment publicly by name and both spoke on condition of anonymity.___CYBERSECURITYNo breakthroughs on this issue were announced, but the leaders agreed to at least talk about what has become a major source of conflict between the U.S. and Russia.Biden said he and Putin agreed to have their experts work out an understanding about what types of critical infrastructure would be off-limits to cyberattacks. He said the U.S. presented Russia with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cisa.gov/critical-infrastructure-sectors" target="_blank">16 specific types of infrastructure,</a>&nbsp;including energy, elections, banking and water systems, and the defense industry.The agreement comes amid a flood of ransomware attacks against U.S. businesses and government agencies, including one in May that disrupted fuel supplies along the East Coast for nearly a week. The disruption was blamed on a criminal gang operating out of Russia, which does not extradite suspects to the U.S.Other serious incidents include the SolarWinds intrusion discovered last year in which hackers, believed by U.S. authorities to be Russian, penetrated multiple U.S. government networks and prompted Biden to impose additional U.S. sanctions against Russia.Biden said the U.S. and Russian governments would follow up on certain criminal cases, an apparent reference to cybercriminals operating with impunity from Russian territory.Putin agreed there is mutual interest in the subject.Biden also made an implicit threat against Russia, saying the U.S. has “significant cyber capability” it could use against Russia if it were to interfere with U.S. critical infrastructure.___NUCLEAR WEAPONSBiden and Putin instructed their diplomats to begin laying the groundwork for a new phase of arms control.The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/16/u-s-russia-presidential-joint-statement-on-strategic-stability/" target="_blank">“strategic stability dialogue”&nbsp;</a>would be a series of discussions designed to set the table for a negotiation by sorting out what exactly should be negotiated. More broadly, it would aim to reduce the risk of war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.Biden said the goal is to work with Russia on “a mechanism that can lead to control of new and dangerous and sophisticated weapons that are coming on the scene now, that reduce the time for response, that raise the prospect of accidental war.” He said this was discussed in detail.No date was announced for the start of talks.The basic idea is to identify and sort out the many areas of disagreement over what a future arms control treaty should address. It also would address ways to avoid unintended or accidental moves that could trigger war.Shortly after Biden took office in January, he and Putin agreed to extend until 2026 the New START treaty that limits long-range nuclear weapons. The challenge now is to work out what a potential follow-on pact would include.The Russians insist it include defensive weapons, such as U.S. missile defense systems. The Americans argue that it should include so-called tactical nuclear weapons, which are not covered by New START and of which the Russians have a far larger number deployed. It might also include new and emerging technologies such as hypersonic missiles and space weaponry.___PRISONER EXCHANGEBiden said he raised with Putin the plight of two Americans detained in Russia.Putin had opened the door to possible discussions about a prisoner swap with the U.S. and said those conversations would continue. Biden said he would follow up, too.The U.S. is holding two prisoners whose release Russia has sought for more than a decade, including arms trader Viktor Bout. The other is Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was extradited from Liberia in 2010 and convicted the next year of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.Biden said Americans Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed are being “wrongfully imprisoned” in Russia.Whelan, who also holds Canadian, Irish and British citizenship, was arrested in Moscow in 2018, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years. Whelan says he was just visiting Moscow.Reed was convicted of assaulting a police officer while intoxicated and sentenced to nine years. Putin, in a recent interview with NBC News, called Reed a “drunk and a troublemaker.”___HUMAN RIGHTSBiden said he’ll continue to air with Putin concerns about basic human rights because it is a core tenet of what the United States stands for.Biden said he couldn’t be president of the United States and not raise human rights issues during the summit with Putin. He mentioned the internationally publicized case of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.But Putin said Navalny got what he deserved when he was handed a stiff prison sentence. Navalny is Putin’s most ardent political foe. He was arrested in January after returning to Russia from Germany, where he’d spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian officials deny involvement in Nalvany’s poisoning.Navalny received a 30-month prison sentence for violating terms of a suspended sentence from a 2014 embezzlement conviction he dismissed a politically motivated.___SYRIABiden pressed Putin to drop a push to close the last international humanitarian crossing into Syria, making clear the matter was of “significant importance” to the U.S.No deal was reached to keep it open, however.Russia is threatening to use its U.N. Security Council veto to close the aid route for millions of Syrians internally displaced by that country’s war.___AFGHANISTAN and IRANBiden said Putin asked about Afghanistan and expressed a desire that peace and security be maintained there. Biden said he told Putin that a lot of that will depend on him, and that Putin indicated he was prepared to “help” on Afghanistan as well as on Iran.Biden declined to go into further detail. Biden’s administration is mounting new efforts to get Iran to comply with the terms of a nuclear deal it had once agreed to before Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew the U.S. from the agreement the U.S. and other world powers struck with Iran in 2015.Putin also talked about preventing a resurgence of terrorist violence in Afghanistan. Biden said it would be very much in Russia’s interest to not see that happen.___<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1623845475995.png" alt="Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden as their summit begins in Geneva-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden as their summit begins in Geneva-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>GENEVA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their summit on Wednesday with an agreement to return their nations' ambassadors to their posts in Washington and Moscow and a plan to begin work toward replacing the last remaining treaty between the two countries limiting nuclear weapons.But the two leaders offered starkly different views on difficult simmering issues including cyber and ransomware attacks originating from Russia.Putin insisted anew that his country has nothing to do with such attacks, despite U..S. intelligence that indicates otherwise. Biden, meanwhile, said that he made clear to Putin that if Russia crossed certain red lines — including going after major American infrastructure — his administration would respond and “the consequences of that would be devastating,”Will Putin change his behavior? Biden was asked at a post-summit news conference.“I said what will change their behavior is if the rest of the world reacts” in a way that “diminishes their standing in the world," Biden said. "I’m not confident of anything. I’m just stating a fact.”Both leaders, who have stirred escalating tension since Biden took office in January, suggested that while an enormous chasm between the two nations remains the talks were constructive.Putin said there was “no hostility” during three hours of talks, a session that wrapped up more quickly than expected.When it was over, Putin had first crack at describing the results at a solo news conference, with Biden following soon after. Biden said they spent a “great deal of time” discussing cybersecurity and he believed Putin understood the U.S. position.“I pointed out to him, we have significant cyber capability," Biden said. "In fact, (if) they violate basic norms, we will respond. ... I think that the last thing he wants now is a Cold War.”Putin noted that Biden raised human rights issues with him, including the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Putin defended Navalny’s prison sentence and deflected repeated questions about mistreatment of Russian opposition leaders by highlighting U.S. domestic turmoil, including the Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.Putin held forth for nearly an hour before international reporters. While showing defiance at queries about Biden pressing him on human rights, he also expressed respect for Biden as an experienced political leader.The Russian noted that Biden repeated wise advice his mother had given him and also spoke about his family — messaging that Putin said might not have been entirely relevant to their summit but demonstrated Biden's “moral values.” Though he raised doubt that the U.S.-Russia relationship could soon return to a measure of equilibrium of years past, Putin suggested that Biden was someone he could work with.“The meeting was actually very efficient,” Putin said. “It was substantive, it was specific. It was aimed at achieving results, and one of them was pushing back the frontiers of trust.”Putin said he and Biden agreed to begin negotiations on nuclear talks to potentially replace the New START treaty limiting nuclear weapons after it expires in 2026.Washington broke off talks with Moscow in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and its military intervention in support of separatists in eastern Ukraine. Talks resumed in 2017 but gained little traction and failed to produce an agreement on extending the New START treaty during the Trump administration.The Russian president said there was an agreement between the leaders to return their ambassadors to their respective postings. Both countries had pulled back their top envoys to Washington and Moscow as relations chilled in recent months.Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled from Washington about three months ago after Biden called Putin a killer; U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan left Moscow almost two months ago, after Russia suggested he return to Washington for consultations. Putin said that the ambassadors were expected to return their posts in the coming days.The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning — both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.Biden nodded when a reporter asked if Putin could be trusted, but the White House quickly sent out a tweet insisting that the president was “very clearly not responding to any one question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”Their body language, at least in their brief moments together in front of the press, was not exceptionally warm.The two leaders did shake hands — Biden extended his hand first and smiled at the stoic Russian leader — after Swiss President Guy Parmelin welcomed them to Switzerland for the summit. When they were in front of the cameras a few minutes later—this time inside the grand lakeside mansion where the summit was held—they seemed to avoid eye contact.For months, Biden and Putin have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden has repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, for the jailing of Russia's foremost opposition leader and for interference in American elections.Putin has reacted with whatabout-isms and denials — pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government hasn't been involved in any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.In advance of Wednesday's meeting, both sides set out to lower expectations.Even so, Biden said it would be an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability" in their relationship, a significant goal for a president who sees Russia as one of America's crucial adversaries.Arrangements for the meeting were carefully choreographed and vigorously negotiated.Biden first floated the meeting in an April phone call in which he informed Putin that he would be expelling several Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions against dozens of people and companies, part of an effort to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.The White House announced ahead of the summit that Biden wouldn't hold a joint news conference with Putin, deciding it did not want to appear to elevate Putin at a moment when the U.S. president is urging European allies to pressure Putin to cut out myriad provocations.Biden sees himself with few peers on foreign policy. He traveled the globe as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was given difficult foreign policy assignments by President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. His portfolio included messy spots like Iraq and Ukraine and weighing the mettle of China's Xi Jinping during his rise to power.He has repeatedly said that he believes executing effective foreign policy comes from forming strong personal relations, and he has managed to find rapport with both the likes of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Biden has labeled an “autocrat,” and more conventional Western leaders including Canada's Justin Trudeau.But with Putin, who he once said has “no soul," Biden has long been wary. At the same time, he acknowledges that Putin, who has remained the most powerful figure in Russian politics over the span of five U.S. presidents, is not without talent.“He’s bright. He’s tough," Biden said earlier this week. “And I have found that he is a — as they say ... a worthy adversary."

Biden-Putin summit: What they accomplished

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the nation.&nbsp;No members from Missouri or Kansas opposed the bill in either the House or Senate.

The House voted 415-14 Wednesday to make Juneteenth, or June 19th, the 12th federal holiday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk, and he is expected to sign it into law.

Juneteenth commemorates the day the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865, but word didn’t reach the last enslaved Black people until June 19, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to Galveston, Texas. That was also about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.

It’s the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.

“Our federal holidays are purposely few in number and recognize the most important milestones,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. “I cannot think of a more important milestone to commemorate than the end of slavery in the United States.”

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, speaking next to a large poster of a Black man whose back bore massive scarring from being whipped, said she would be in Galveston this Saturday to celebrate along with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

“Can you imagine?” said the rather short Jackson Lee. “I will be standing maybe taller than Sen. Cornyn, forgive me for that, because it will be such an elevation of joy.”

The Senate passed the bill a day earlier under a unanimous consent agreement that expedites the process for considering legislation. It takes just one senator’s objection to block such agreements.

“Please, let us do as the Senate. Vote unanimously for passage,” Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., pleaded with his colleagues.

The vote comes as lawmakers struggle to overcome divisions on police reform legislation following the killing of George Floyd by police and as Republican state legislators push what experts say is an unprecedented number of bills aimed at restricting access to the ballot box. While Republicans say the goal is to prevent voter fraud, Democrats contend that the measures are aimed at undermining minority voting rights.

Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus took to the floor to speak in favor of the bill. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., said she viewed Juneteenth as a commemoration rather than a celebration because it represented something that was delayed in happening.

“It also reminds me of what we don’t have today,” she said. “And that is full access to justice, freedom and equality. All these are often in short supply as it relates to the Black community.”

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and had 60 co-sponsors. Democratic leaders moved quickly to bring the bill to the House floor after the Senate’s vote the day before.

Some Republican lawmakers opposed the effort. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said creating the federal holiday was an effort to celebrate “identity politics.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1623892661718.png" alt="Image courtesy Junetenth ICT" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy Junetenth ICT</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the nation.&nbsp;No members from Missouri or Kansas opposed the bill in either the House or Senate.The House voted 415-14 Wednesday to make Juneteenth, or June 19th, the 12th federal holiday. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk, and he is expected to sign it into law.Juneteenth commemorates the day the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865, but word didn’t reach the last enslaved Black people until June 19, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to Galveston, Texas. That was also about 2 1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Southern states.It’s the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.“Our federal holidays are purposely few in number and recognize the most important milestones,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. “I cannot think of a more important milestone to commemorate than the end of slavery in the United States.”Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, speaking next to a large poster of a Black man whose back bore massive scarring from being whipped, said she would be in Galveston this Saturday to celebrate along with Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.“Can you imagine?” said the rather short Jackson Lee. “I will be standing maybe taller than Sen. Cornyn, forgive me for that, because it will be such an elevation of joy.”The Senate passed the bill a day earlier under a unanimous consent agreement that expedites the process for considering legislation. It takes just one senator’s objection to block such agreements.“Please, let us do as the Senate. Vote unanimously for passage,” Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., pleaded with his colleagues.The vote comes as lawmakers struggle to overcome divisions on police reform legislation following the killing of George Floyd by police and as Republican state legislators push what experts say is an unprecedented number of bills aimed at restricting access to the ballot box. While Republicans say the goal is to prevent voter fraud, Democrats contend that the measures are aimed at undermining minority voting rights.Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus took to the floor to speak in favor of the bill. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., said she viewed Juneteenth as a commemoration rather than a celebration because it represented something that was delayed in happening.“It also reminds me of what we don’t have today,” she said. “And that is full access to justice, freedom and equality. All these are often in short supply as it relates to the Black community.”The bill was sponsored by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and had 60 co-sponsors. Democratic leaders moved quickly to bring the bill to the House floor after the Senate’s vote the day before.Some Republican lawmakers opposed the effort. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said creating the federal holiday was an effort to celebrate “identity politics.”

Congress approves bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota health officials warned that despite coronavirus cases declining to the lowest rates since the early days of the pandemic, the state could see a resurgence of the virus in the fall if not enough people are vaccinated against COVID-19. 

State epidemiologist Josh Clayton says that the coronavirus is a respiratory virus, meaning there is a risk of a resurgence when people gather indoors as the weather cools. 

South Dakota reported just 10 new cases Wednesday, but Clayton says there is still a risk of a fall resurgence if not enough people are vaccinated.

 But vaccination rates have slowed in recent weeks.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota health officials warned that despite coronavirus cases declining to the lowest rates since the early days of the pandemic, the state could see a resurgence of the virus in the fall if not enough people are vaccinated against COVID-19. State epidemiologist Josh Clayton says that the coronavirus is a respiratory virus, meaning there is a risk of a resurgence when people gather indoors as the weather cools. South Dakota reported just 10 new cases Wednesday, but Clayton says there is still a risk of a fall resurgence if not enough people are vaccinated. But vaccination rates have slowed in recent weeks.

Virus cases drop, health officials warn of fall resurgence

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say a 31-year-old man who was shot during a party over the weekend has died.

 Deontae Abron, of Lincoln, died Tuesday after being shot in the face at a party Saturday near Lincoln Northeast High School.

 Police said a fight involving several people broke out and someone fired several shots, injuring Abron. 

People fled the area and police are asking for witnesses to come forward, especially those who have cellphone video of the fight.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln police say a 31-year-old man who was shot during a party over the weekend has died. Deontae Abron, of Lincoln, died Tuesday after being shot in the face at a party Saturday near Lincoln Northeast High School. Police said a fight involving several people broke out and someone fired several shots, injuring Abron. People fled the area and police are asking for witnesses to come forward, especially those who have cellphone video of the fight.

Man shot at party in Lincoln during the weekend has died

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two teenagers are in custody after being arrested in a double homicide in Omaha. 

Police say 16- and 17-year-old males were arrested Tuesday in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. 

The 16-year-old was charged with six felonies, including first-degree murder. 

The 17-year-old was charged with two counts of being an accessory to a felony. 

Police say the two were wanted in the June 3 killings of Jia’Quan Williams and Ja’Vondre’ McIntosh, who were both 17.

 The two victims were shot June 3 in north Omaha.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two teenagers are in custody after being arrested in a double homicide in Omaha. Police say 16- and 17-year-old males were arrested Tuesday in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. The 16-year-old was charged with six felonies, including first-degree murder. The 17-year-old was charged with two counts of being an accessory to a felony. Police say the two were wanted in the June 3 killings of Jia’Quan Williams and Ja’Vondre’ McIntosh, who were both 17. The two victims were shot June 3 in north Omaha.

Suspects arrested in shooting deaths of 2 teenagers in Omaha

LAKE CITY, Iowa (AP) — Fire has destroyed a western Iowa business that made pipe organs for churches, schools and customers from around the world. 

Officials say the fire at Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Lake City was reported around 4 p.m. Tuesday. 

Firefighters found the building engulfed in flames that caused its exterior walls to collapse. 

Officials said one employee of the company was burned when he tried to put out the flames. 

The State Fire Marshal’s Office says it believes the fire was started by a malfunctioning fan that caused sawdust to ignite.

 Dobson Pipe Organ Builders' website says it was founded in 1974 by Lynn Dobson, a Carroll, Iowa, native who attended Wayne State College in Nebraska.

LAKE CITY, Iowa (AP) — Fire has destroyed a western Iowa business that made pipe organs for churches, schools and customers from around the world. Officials say the fire at Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Lake City was reported around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Firefighters found the building engulfed in flames that caused its exterior walls to collapse. Officials said one employee of the company was burned when he tried to put out the flames. The State Fire Marshal’s Office says it believes the fire was started by a malfunctioning fan that caused sawdust to ignite. Dobson Pipe Organ Builders' website says it was founded in 1974 by Lynn Dobson, a Carroll, Iowa, native who attended Wayne State College in Nebraska.

Fire destroys pipe organ making business in western Iowa

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police in Omaha are investigating the city's latest shooting death that happened early Wednesday.

 Police say in a news release that officers were alerted around 2:20 a.m. Wednesday to a shooting near a north Omaha intersection by the city’s ShotSpotter system. 

Arriving officers found 37-year-old Timothy Washington III, who was killed in the gunfire. 

Police later received reports of two women, ages 33 and 21, who showed up in private vehicles at an Omaha hospital with injuries from the same shooting scene. 

Police say the women are expected to survive. 

No arrests had been reported in the shooting by midmorning Wednesday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police in Omaha are investigating the city's latest shooting death that happened early Wednesday. Police say in a news release that officers were alerted around 2:20 a.m. Wednesday to a shooting near a north Omaha intersection by the city’s ShotSpotter system. Arriving officers found 37-year-old Timothy Washington III, who was killed in the gunfire. Police later received reports of two women, ages 33 and 21, who showed up in private vehicles at an Omaha hospital with injuries from the same shooting scene. Police say the women are expected to survive. No arrests had been reported in the shooting by midmorning Wednesday.

Omaha police investigating city's latest shooting death

GENEVA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have concluded their high-stake summit in Geneva. 

The pair met for nearly four hours on Wednesday, first in a smaller session and later in a larger meeting that was expanded to include more officials from both sides and which lasted about 65 minutes. 

Putin and then Biden are scheduled to hold press conferences before departing the summit site.

GENEVA (AP) — With stern expressions and polite words before the cameras, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin plunged into hours of face-to-face talks Wednesday at a lush lakeside Swiss mansion, a highly anticipated summit at a time when both leaders say relations between their countries are at an all-time low.

Biden called it a discussion between “two great powers” and said it was “always better to meet face to face.” Putin said he hoped the talks would be “productive.”

Putin ignored shouted questions from reporters, including whether he feared jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The two leaders did shake hands — Biden extended his hand first and smiled at the stoic Russian leader — moments earlier when they posed with Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who welcomed them to Switzerland for the summit.

Biden and Putin first held a relatively intimate meeting joined by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Each side had a translator for the session, which lasted about an hour and a half. The meeting, after about a 40-minute break, then expanded to include senior aides on each side. Biden and Putin were expected to meet for a total of four to five hours of wide-ranging talks.

For months, they have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden has repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, for the jailing of Russia’s foremost opposition leader and for interference in American elections.

Putin has reacted with whatabout-isms and denials — pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government hasn’t been involved in any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.

In advance of Wednesday’s meeting, both sides&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-europe-middle-east-summits-34b4222285bac602168eadf15a414f5e">set out to lower expectations.</a>

Even so, Biden said it was an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability” in their relationship, a seemingly modest goal from the president for dealing with the person he sees as one of America’s fiercest adversaries.

“We should decide where it’s in our mutual interest, in the interest of the world, to cooperate, and see if we can do that,” Biden told reporters earlier this week. “And the areas where we don’t agree, make it clear what the red lines are.”

GENEVA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have finished the first round of their summit talks and are proceeding to the first of two larger meetings in Geneva. Biden and Putin first met accompanied by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a pair of translators. 

Two additional sessions are planned Wednesday afternoon with the leaders to be joined by additional aides and translators. The U.S. and Russian leaders are meeting at a time that relations between their countries are at an all-time low. Their talks are expected to last four to five hours.

GENEVA (AP) — The White House says President Joe Biden was not suggesting to reporters that he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin with his reaction to a reporter’s question in Geneva. At the start of a high-stakes summit in Geneva, Biden appeared to suggest that he can take the Russian leader at his word, nodding his head during a photo opportunity when asked by a reporter if Putin can be trusted. 

Communications director Kate Beddingfield later said there was a “chaotic scrum with reporters shouting over each other” in that moment. She argued that Biden “was very clearly not responding to any one question” when a journalist asked if he trusted Putin. Bedingfield said Biden was “nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”

GENEVA (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked President Joe Biden and expressed wishes for a “productive” meeting as the two kicked off their meeting in Geneva. Putin told Biden upon first meeting him on Wednesday that he was thankful for the gathering as he knew the U.S. president “had a long trip and lots of work.” 

But the Russian president emphasized that there are “lots of questions accumulated in Russia-U.S. relations that require discussion on the highest level.” 

The two are expected to address everything from cybercrime to Russia’s alleged interference in U.S. elections during their meeting. Biden, who has spoken to Putin over the phone, told the Russian leader that “it is always better to meet face to face.”

GENEVA (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin sit down Wednesday for their&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-donald-trump-joe-biden-biden-cabinet-g-7-summit-91b7d8f2a9ac0058ccba74ac36036ae1">highly anticipated summit</a>&nbsp;in the Swiss city of Geneva, a moment of high-stakes diplomacy at a time when both leaders agree that relations between their countries are at an all-time low.

For four months, the two leaders have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, a disregard for democracy with the jailing of Russia’s foremost opposition leader and interference in American elections.

Putin, for his part, has reacted with whatabout-isms and obfuscations — pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government hasn’t been involved in any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.

Now, the pair will meet for their first face-to-face as leaders — a conversation that is expected to last four to five hours. In advance, both sides&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-europe-middle-east-summits-34b4222285bac602168eadf15a414f5e">set out to lower expectations.</a>

Even so, Biden has said it would be an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability” in their relationship, a seemingly modest goal from the president for dealing with the person he sees as one of America’s fiercest adversaries.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that no breakthroughs were expected and that “the situation is too difficult in Russian-American relations.””

“However, the fact that the two presidents agreed to meet and finally start to speak openly about the problems is already an achievement,” Peskov said several hours before the summit’s scheduled start time.

Arrangements for the meeting have been carefully choreographed and vigorously negotiated by both sides.

Biden first floated the meeting in an April phone call in which he informed Putin that he would be expelling several Russian diplomats and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-ap-top-news-moscow-coronavirus-pandemic-elections-4c368f4734d5d1c5938645aa09641c79">imposing sanctions</a>&nbsp;against dozens of people and companies, part of an effort to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.

Putin and his entourage will arrive first at the summit site: Villa La Grange, a grand lakeside mansion set in Geneva’s biggest park. Next come Biden and his team. Swiss President Guy Parmelin will greet the two leaders.

The three will spend a moment together in front of the cameras, but only Parmelin is expected to make remarks, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.

Biden and Putin first will hold a relatively intimate meeting joined by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Each side will have a translator.

The meeting will then expand to include five senior aides on each side.

After the meeting concludes, Putin is scheduled to hold a solo news conference, with Biden following suit. The White House opted against a joint news conference, deciding it did not want to appear to elevate Putin at a moment when the president is urging European allies to pressure Putin to cut out myriad provocations.

Biden sees himself with few peers on foreign policy. He traveled the globe as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was given difficult foreign policy assignments by President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. His portfolio included messy spots like Iraq and Ukraine and weighing the mettle of China’s Xi Jinping during his rise to power.

He has repeatedly said that he believes executing effective foreign policy comes from forming strong personal relations, and he has managed to find rapport with both the likes of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Biden has labeled an “autocrat,” and conventional politicians like Canada’s Justin Trudeau.

But with Putin, whom the president has “no soul,”&nbsp;<a href="ttps://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-donald-trump-joe-biden-europe-middle-east-fcf067acc9da94e9ffe7bd6a55a574cd" target="_blank">Biden has long been wary</a>. At the same time, he acknowledges that Putin, who remained the most powerful figure in Russian politics over the span of five U.S. presidents, is not without talent. Biden this week suggested that he is approaching his meeting with Putin carefully.

“He’s bright. He’s tough,” Biden said. “And I have found that he is a — as they say...a worthy adversary.”

The White House held on to hope of finding small areas of agreement.

No commitments have been made, but according to the senior administration official, there are hopes that both sides will return their ambassadors to their respective postings following the meeting. Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled from Washington about three months ago after Biden called Putin a killer; U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan left Moscow almost two months ago, after Russia suggested he return to Washington for consultations.

Both ambassadors will be in Geneva during Wednesday’s meeting.

Biden administration officials say they think common ground can be found on arms control. International arms control groups are pressing the Russian and American leaders to start a push for new arms control by holding “strategic stability” talks — a series of government-to-government discussions meant to sort through the many areas of disagreement and tension on the national security front.

The Biden team will press its concerns on cybersecurity. In recent months, Russia-based hackers have launched alarming attacks on a major U.S. oil pipeline and a Brazil-headquartered meat supplier that operates in the U.S.

The Russian side has said that the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is an internal political matter and one area where Putin won’t engage Biden. But the senior Biden administration official said there “is no issue that is off the table for the president,” suggesting Navalny will come up.

The meeting is sure to invite comparisons with President Donald Trump’s 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, where the two leaders held a joint news conference and Trump sided with Russian denials when asked whether Moscow had meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

Biden has prepared for his one-on-one by reviewing materials and consulting with officials across government and with outside advisers. Aides said the level of preparation wasn’t unusual. Biden, in a brief exchange with reporters upon a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-donald-trump-joe-biden-biden-cabinet-g-7-summit-91b7d8f2a9ac0058ccba74ac36036ae1">rriving in Geneva on Tuesday night</a>, sought to offer the impression that he wasn’t sweating his big meeting.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1623857775069.png" alt="President Joe Biden and the Russian President just ahead of their brief meeting on Wednesday-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>President Joe Biden and the Russian President just ahead of their brief meeting on Wednesday-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>GENEVA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have concluded their high-stake summit in Geneva. The pair met for nearly four hours on Wednesday, first in a smaller session and later in a larger meeting that was expanded to include more officials from both sides and which lasted about 65 minutes. Putin and then Biden are scheduled to hold press conferences before departing the summit site.---------<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1623845475995.png" alt="Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden as their summit begins in Geneva-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden as their summit begins in Geneva-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>GENEVA (AP) — With stern expressions and polite words before the cameras, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin plunged into hours of face-to-face talks Wednesday at a lush lakeside Swiss mansion, a highly anticipated summit at a time when both leaders say relations between their countries are at an all-time low.Biden called it a discussion between “two great powers” and said it was “always better to meet face to face.” Putin said he hoped the talks would be “productive.”The meeting in a book-lined room had a somewhat awkward beginning — both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.Biden nodded when a reporter asked if Putin could be trusted, but the White House quickly sent out a tweet insisting that the president was “very clearly not responding to any one question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”Putin ignored shouted questions from reporters, including whether he feared jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.The two leaders did shake hands — Biden extended his hand first and smiled at the stoic Russian leader — moments earlier when they posed with Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who welcomed them to Switzerland for the summit.Biden and Putin first held a relatively intimate meeting joined by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Each side had a translator for the session, which lasted about an hour and a half. The meeting, after about a 40-minute break, then expanded to include senior aides on each side. Biden and Putin were expected to meet for a total of four to five hours of wide-ranging talks.For months, they have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden has repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, for the jailing of Russia’s foremost opposition leader and for interference in American elections.Putin has reacted with whatabout-isms and denials — pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government hasn’t been involved in any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.In advance of Wednesday’s meeting, both sides&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-europe-middle-east-summits-34b4222285bac602168eadf15a414f5e">set out to lower expectations.</a>Even so, Biden said it was an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability” in their relationship, a seemingly modest goal from the president for dealing with the person he sees as one of America’s fiercest adversaries.“We should decide where it’s in our mutual interest, in the interest of the world, to cooperate, and see if we can do that,” Biden told reporters earlier this week. “And the areas where we don’t agree, make it clear what the red lines are.”---------GENEVA (AP) — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have finished the first round of their summit talks and are proceeding to the first of two larger meetings in Geneva. Biden and Putin first met accompanied by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and a pair of translators. Two additional sessions are planned Wednesday afternoon with the leaders to be joined by additional aides and translators. The U.S. and Russian leaders are meeting at a time that relations between their countries are at an all-time low. Their talks are expected to last four to five hours.-------------GENEVA (AP) — The White House says President Joe Biden was not suggesting to reporters that he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin with his reaction to a reporter’s question in Geneva. At the start of a high-stakes summit in Geneva, Biden appeared to suggest that he can take the Russian leader at his word, nodding his head during a photo opportunity when asked by a reporter if Putin can be trusted. Communications director Kate Beddingfield later said there was a “chaotic scrum with reporters shouting over each other” in that moment. She argued that Biden “was very clearly not responding to any one question” when a journalist asked if he trusted Putin. Bedingfield said Biden was “nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally.”----------GENEVA (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked President Joe Biden and expressed wishes for a “productive” meeting as the two kicked off their meeting in Geneva. Putin told Biden upon first meeting him on Wednesday that he was thankful for the gathering as he knew the U.S. president “had a long trip and lots of work.” But the Russian president emphasized that there are “lots of questions accumulated in Russia-U.S. relations that require discussion on the highest level.” The two are expected to address everything from cybercrime to Russia’s alleged interference in U.S. elections during their meeting. Biden, who has spoken to Putin over the phone, told the Russian leader that “it is always better to meet face to face.”--------GENEVA (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin sit down Wednesday for their&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-donald-trump-joe-biden-biden-cabinet-g-7-summit-91b7d8f2a9ac0058ccba74ac36036ae1">highly anticipated summit</a>&nbsp;in the Swiss city of Geneva, a moment of high-stakes diplomacy at a time when both leaders agree that relations between their countries are at an all-time low.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1623838573406.png" alt="President Biden has said it would be an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability” in their relationship-photo courtesy White House" />
 <figcaption>President Biden has said it would be an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability” in their relationship-photo courtesy White House</figcaption>
 </figure>For four months, the two leaders have traded sharp rhetoric. Biden repeatedly called out Putin for malicious cyberattacks by Russian-based hackers on U.S. interests, a disregard for democracy with the jailing of Russia’s foremost opposition leader and interference in American elections.Putin, for his part, has reacted with whatabout-isms and obfuscations — pointing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to argue that the U.S. has no business lecturing on democratic norms and insisting that the Russian government hasn’t been involved in any election interference or cyberattacks despite U.S. intelligence showing otherwise.Now, the pair will meet for their first face-to-face as leaders — a conversation that is expected to last four to five hours. In advance, both sides&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-europe-middle-east-summits-34b4222285bac602168eadf15a414f5e">set out to lower expectations.</a>Even so, Biden has said it would be an important step if the United States and Russia were able to ultimately find “stability and predictability” in their relationship, a seemingly modest goal from the president for dealing with the person he sees as one of America’s fiercest adversaries.“We should decide where it’s in our mutual interest, in the interest of the world, to cooperate, and see if we can do that,” Biden told reporters earlier this week. “And the areas where we don’t agree, make it clear what the red lines are.”Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that no breakthroughs were expected and that “the situation is too difficult in Russian-American relations.””“However, the fact that the two presidents agreed to meet and finally start to speak openly about the problems is already an achievement,” Peskov said several hours before the summit’s scheduled start time.Arrangements for the meeting have been carefully choreographed and vigorously negotiated by both sides.Biden first floated the meeting in an April phone call in which he informed Putin that he would be expelling several Russian diplomats and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-ap-top-news-moscow-coronavirus-pandemic-elections-4c368f4734d5d1c5938645aa09641c79">imposing sanctions</a>&nbsp;against dozens of people and companies, part of an effort to hold the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year’s presidential election and the hacking of federal agencies.Putin and his entourage will arrive first at the summit site: Villa La Grange, a grand lakeside mansion set in Geneva’s biggest park. Next come Biden and his team. Swiss President Guy Parmelin will greet the two leaders.The three will spend a moment together in front of the cameras, but only Parmelin is expected to make remarks, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.Biden and Putin first will hold a relatively intimate meeting joined by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Each side will have a translator.The meeting will then expand to include five senior aides on each side.After the meeting concludes, Putin is scheduled to hold a solo news conference, with Biden following suit. The White House opted against a joint news conference, deciding it did not want to appear to elevate Putin at a moment when the president is urging European allies to pressure Putin to cut out myriad provocations.Biden sees himself with few peers on foreign policy. He traveled the globe as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was given difficult foreign policy assignments by President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president. His portfolio included messy spots like Iraq and Ukraine and weighing the mettle of China’s Xi Jinping during his rise to power.He has repeatedly said that he believes executing effective foreign policy comes from forming strong personal relations, and he has managed to find rapport with both the likes of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Biden has labeled an “autocrat,” and conventional politicians like Canada’s Justin Trudeau.But with Putin, whom the president has “no soul,”&nbsp;<a href="ttps://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-donald-trump-joe-biden-europe-middle-east-fcf067acc9da94e9ffe7bd6a55a574cd" target="_blank">Biden has long been wary</a>. At the same time, he acknowledges that Putin, who remained the most powerful figure in Russian politics over the span of five U.S. presidents, is not without talent. Biden this week suggested that he is approaching his meeting with Putin carefully.“He’s bright. He’s tough,” Biden said. “And I have found that he is a — as they say...a worthy adversary.”The White House held on to hope of finding small areas of agreement.No commitments have been made, but according to the senior administration official, there are hopes that both sides will return their ambassadors to their respective postings following the meeting. Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was recalled from Washington about three months ago after Biden called Putin a killer; U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan left Moscow almost two months ago, after Russia suggested he return to Washington for consultations.Both ambassadors will be in Geneva during Wednesday’s meeting.Biden administration officials say they think common ground can be found on arms control. International arms control groups are pressing the Russian and American leaders to start a push for new arms control by holding “strategic stability” talks — a series of government-to-government discussions meant to sort through the many areas of disagreement and tension on the national security front.The Biden team will press its concerns on cybersecurity. In recent months, Russia-based hackers have launched alarming attacks on a major U.S. oil pipeline and a Brazil-headquartered meat supplier that operates in the U.S.The Russian side has said that the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is an internal political matter and one area where Putin won’t engage Biden. But the senior Biden administration official said there “is no issue that is off the table for the president,” suggesting Navalny will come up.The meeting is sure to invite comparisons with President Donald Trump’s 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, where the two leaders held a joint news conference and Trump sided with Russian denials when asked whether Moscow had meddled in the 2016 presidential election.Biden has prepared for his one-on-one by reviewing materials and consulting with officials across government and with outside advisers. Aides said the level of preparation wasn’t unusual. Biden, in a brief exchange with reporters upon a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-donald-trump-joe-biden-biden-cabinet-g-7-summit-91b7d8f2a9ac0058ccba74ac36036ae1">rriving in Geneva on Tuesday night</a>, sought to offer the impression that he wasn’t sweating his big meeting.“I am always ready,” Biden said.

The Latest: Biden, Putin long-anticipated summit ends

SUNRISE BEACH, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say five people from Nebraska were seriously injured when a boat exploded at a Missouri lake. 

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the explosion occurred Tuesday afternoon near Sunrise Beach at the Lake of the Ozarks.

 The patrol says the boat was secured at a dock when a mechanical problem caused a fuel-related fire.

 James and Kari Hohenstein, Brad Vanwinkle and two children aged 12 and 16 were seriously injured. 

SUNRISE BEACH, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say five people from Nebraska were seriously injured when a boat exploded at a Missouri lake. The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the explosion occurred Tuesday afternoon near Sunrise Beach at the Lake of the Ozarks. The patrol says the boat was secured at a dock when a mechanical problem caused a fuel-related fire. James and Kari Hohenstein, Brad Vanwinkle and two children aged 12 and 16 were seriously injured. A 2-year-old suffered minor injuries. The 16-year-old and Vanwinkle were flown to a Columbia hospital, while three others were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. The people on the boat are from Gretna and Elkhorn, Nebraska.