🇺🇸🇷🇺The bilateral meeting of US and Russian presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva will begin on Wednesday at 13:35 local time (11:35 GMT), according to Biden's daily schedule shared by the White House.

🦠 A new study has found that the COVID-19 coronavirus was circulating in the United States several weeks before the first documented cases were identified, paralleling the first detected cases in China, where the outbreak is commonly believed to have begun.

The study found that in five states - Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - seven people who gave blood samples had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. Three were from Illinois and were delivered on January 7, 17 days before the first case was identified on January 24.

Does this undermine the theory that the virus originated in China?

🇷🇺🇺🇸 With mere hours remaining until the landmark Putin-Biden summit, Sputnik takes a look at significant meetings between US and Soviet/Russian leaders in the past:

🔸 Richard M. Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev meet in Yalta, Crimea, 1974;

🔸 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the INF treaty in Washington, D.C., 1987;

🔸 Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev shake hands after signing the New START in Prague, 2010;

🔸Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin hold joint press conference in Helsinki, 2018.

Putin and Biden shake hands at Villa La Grange in Geneva

Putin thanks Biden for taking the initiative to meet

Biden says he hopes to establish 'predictable' & 'rational' framework even though Russian an US interests diverge

Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden

Not one handshake!

✈️ Swiss Air Force jets escorted Putin's plane as he was approaching Geneva

Swiss President Guy Parmelin: 'Thanks to all those committed to ensuring that the summit can take place under the best possible conditions'

The journalist stampede at the Putin-Biden summit

❗️The first part of the Putin-Biden summit is over, it lasted nearly 2 hours, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, says

First round of extended talks between Russian and American delegations begins

🤔 Twitter buzzes guessing what’s on the flashcards used by Biden at summit with Putin

Members of American and Russian delegations in Geneva: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov with Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov

Russian Envoy to the US Anatoly Antonov with Putin's Spokesman Dmitry Peskov

Joe Biden pictured going into the first round of extended talks with Vladimir Putin

❗️ Expanded bilateral meeting breaks up at 17:05 local time, White House official says