US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has relaunched his attack on China, claiming there's "significant evidence" to show their role in the coronavirus outbreak.
"There is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan," he told ABC's This Week.
Pompeo, however, did not dispute US intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not manmade.
Meanwhile, China's state run newspaper dismissed the allegations, adding that the US official was "bluffing".
"The Trump administration continues to engage in unprecedented propaganda warfare while trying to impede global efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic," the editorial said.
So far, more than 3,568,217 people around the world have been infected, with 248,347 deaths.
Israel is poised to send troops into Rafah, the Gazan city it sees as the last bastion of Hamas, Israeli media reported on Wednesday, saying preparations were under way to evacuate war-displaced Palestinian civilians who have been sheltering there.
A Russian court on Wednesday ordered one of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's deputies be kept in custody on suspicion of taking bribes, the highest-profile corruption case since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, a senior figure in the country's ruling party, met with Donald Trump on Tuesday, becoming the latest US ally seeking to establish ties with the Republican presidential candidate.
Russian missiles damaged residential buildings and injured six people in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, early on Wednesday, Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram.
Five migrants died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain in an overcrowded small boat on Tuesday, hours after Britain passed a bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda in a move to deter the dangerous journeys.