President Joe Biden used his first meeting with a foreign leader since ending the war in Afghanistan to send the message that the United States — unburdened of its “forever war”— is determined to become a more reliable ally to its friends.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose hopes for a White House meeting played a central part in former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, will finally get his chance for an Oval Office sit down late next month.

The Trump administration’s ambassador to the European Union and a pivotal witness in 2019 impeachment proceedings has sued former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an effort to recoup $1.8 million in legal fees.

President Joe Biden is facing a fresh challenge to his oft-repeated commitment to diversity in his administration: assembling a diplomatic corps that gives a nod to key political allies and donors while staying true to a campaign pledge to appoint ambassadors who look like America.

"Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the president," Sondland testified of his dealings with Trump's personal attorney. Sondland said he later came to believe military aid that Ukraine relied on to counter Russia was also being held up until the investigations were launched. "Everyone was in the loop," Sondland testified in opening remarks. As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes," he said. "The only thing we got directly from Giuliani was that the Burisma and 2016 elections were conditioned on the White House meeting.

WASHINGTON - Ambassador Gordon Sondland, the most anticipated witness in the impeachment inquiry, will confront questions Wednesday about his evolving accounts of the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine and a newly revealed summertime phone call with President Donald Trump. Yet Sondland already has amended his testimony once -- "I now do recall," he said, talking to Ukraine about investigations. Trump has recently tried to suggest that he barely knows his hand-picked ambassador, but Sondland has said he has spoken several times with the president and was acting on his direction. "I then heard President Trump ask, quote, 'So he's going to do the investigation?'" "Ambassador Sondland replied that 'He's going to do it,' adding that President Zelensky will, quote, 'do anything you ask him to.'"

Mark Reinstein/Corbis Historical/Getty Images via CNN(CNN) - House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff on Wednesday announced impeachment hearings will begin next week as Democrats prepare to take their case against President Donald Trump to the public. The hearings are the next step for Democrats as they move closer to impeaching a President for the third time in US history. In his 15-page opening statement, Taylor explained how he was told that "everything" Ukraine wanted was conditioned on the investigation. Jordan criticized Democrats for not bringing back for public testimony US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, whose transcript was released Tuesday. The public hearings will be conducted just by the House Intelligence Committee.

"This would all undermine U.S. national security. Vindman is the first person who was actually on the call to testify in front of House investigators. The entreaty caused concern among some of his national security officials, who discussed among themselves whether Trump had crossed a line. Initially, the process of transcribing and archiving the call followed the standard procedure for dozens of previous presidential calls with foreign leaders: The raw transcript was circulated to a small group of officials, including the national security adviser, deputy national security adviser, members of the National Security Council's executive secretariat and council lawyers. From there, the National Security Council director responsible for Ukraine -- Vindman -- reviewed the document for accuracy before it made its way to then-national security adviser John Bolton and his deputy Charles Kupperman.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON - A progressive senator from Wisconsin has called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's salary to be withheld until EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland is allowed to testify in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, according to a report by The Hill. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) sent a letter to Pompeo on Tuesday saying the law allows Congress to withhold compensation if a federal official prevents another government employee from communicating with "any Member, committee, or subcommittee of the Congress." The State Department blocked Sondland from testifying in his scheduled House deposition on Tuesday. In his letter, Pocan referred to a piece of legislature signed by Trump himself earlier this year. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

"Ambassador Sondland is profoundly disappointed that he will not be able to testify today. Ambassador Sondland traveled to Washington from Brussels in order to prepare for his testimony and to be available to answer the Committee's questions." The talks centered around how much the White House should be cooperating with requests from House Democrats without a formal impeachment inquiry vote, which the White House has asserted they need for this to be a legitimate probe, despite Democrats saying otherwise. The department also missed a Friday deadline set by House Democrats to respond to a subpoena and turn over documents related to Ukraine. "The text message that I saw from Ambassador Sondland -- who's highly respected -- was: There's 'no quid pro quo.'