In their 37th meeting over the course of eight years, Putin and Xi held a virtual summit Wednesday in which both men pledged to further boost the strategic partnership amid heightened tensions with Washington. Following the hour-and-a-half-long talks, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov revealed further details that gave an insight into potentially critical deliberations made by the two heads of state. Among the more notable comments from Ushakov was that “particular attention was paid to the need to intensify efforts to form an independent financial infrastructure to service trade operations between Russia and China” during the talks between Putin and Xi, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti outlet....

The 42-year-old from Khovd Province reportedly purchased two of the large rodents before contracting the disease, a spokesperson for the country’s health ministry said. The spokesperson, Dorj Narangerel, urged citizens to avoid hunting or eating marmots, which are carriers of the disease in the region, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported. It is illegal to hunt marmots in Mongolia. However, at least one person dies from plague every year in the country, usually after eating or coming into contact with marmots—a large member of the squirrel family....

South Lake Tahoe City Manager Joe Irvin said the area is usually busy around and during Labor Day weekend, but they expect to see fewer tourists this year. “This is the week before Labor Day weekend—a busy weekend, normally,” Irvin said. “That is not going to be the case this year.” Plenty of tourists have remained in the area, crowding the highway that runs around the lake and spending time outdoors, despite the smoke from the Caldor Fire reaching hazardous levels....

On average, poll trackers have his lead at around 8 points with less than three months to election day. However, this is down from prior peaks of around a 10-point lead in late June and early July—Real Clear Politics has him at a 7.6 advantage now, down from 10.2 on June 23, while FiveThirtyEight places him at 8.4, down from 9.6 around the start of July. The poll showing the greatest tightening of late came from CNN, conducted by SSRS from August 12 to 15 among 1,108 respondents, in which 50 percent said they would back the Biden/Harris ticket compared to 46 percent for Trump/Pence....

According to the FiveThirtyEight average of head-to-head polls in Georgia, Ossoff and Warnock lead Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue by roughly two percentage points each with 24 hours left until Election Day. In the weighted average, Ossoff is backed by 49.2 percent of Georgia voters, while Perdue is backed by 47.4 percent. By comparison, Warnock is supported by 49.5 percent of voters, while Loeffler is backed by 47.2 percent....

The unresolved feud between the Koreas is the first and longest-running military front of the 20th-century Cold War. Now, experts and former officials with whom Newsweek spoke see the recent spike in tensions as an emerging theater of a new Cold War already manifesting in flashpoints across the globe. Earlier this month, the White House openly accused Pyongyang of sending a “significant” amount of artillery shells to Moscow under the guise of shipments to third countries in the Middle East and North Africa....

“We are a free-market economy,” Pelosi told reporters on Wednesday when asked about the practice. “(Congress members) should be able to participate in that.” However, Democratic New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently voiced support for a ban on congressional stock trading. She called it “absolutely ludicrous” that Congress members can trade stock with the information, access and influence that they have. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon have both introduced legislation that would ban Congress members from making such trades....

Yes, believe it or not, Cutler was the breakout star of wife Kristin Cavallari’s new E! reality show, “Very Cavallari,” according to fans and critics. The same qualities that made him a poor field general make the 35-year old Cutler a scene-stealer on his wife’s new show. He’s selfish, sulky, unsmiling. MORE: Cutler reportedly never moved out of Miami hotel room after joining Dolphins As anybody who watches “The Bachelor/Bachelorette” or “Survivor” knows, reality TV viewers love bad boys/girls who don’t give a hoot about anybody but themselves....

Last week, Oxford School District Superintendent Tim Throne announced that he will hire an outside agency to conduct an investigation into high school officials’ response to Crumbley’s behavior before the shooting. “Our community and our families deserve a full, transparent accounting of what occurred,” Throne told community members, according to the Detroit Free Press. Shortly after the announcement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said that her office reached out to the school district offering to lead the independent investigation....

On the day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was meeting with Taliban negotiators in Qatar, more than a dozen rockets were fired into residential areas of the Afghan capital. The center and the north of Kabul including the area which houses embassies and international companies, were targeted around 9 a.m. local time on Saturday. The Iranian embassy said its compound had been hit by rocket fragments. Iran’s foreign affairs spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh blamed the attack on the U....

A Daily Kos/Civiqs poll, released on Wednesday, showed that 33 percent of Republicans believe that the QAnon theory is “mostly true”. Another 23 percent believed that “some parts of the conspiracy are true”. Candidate Tracy Lovvorn won her nomination unchallenged for the Republican nomination in Massachusetts’ 2nd congressional district, a heavily Democratic district. Lovvorn expressed her embrace of the QAnon theory on her Twitter account on 23 March, using the hashtag #WWG1WGA—“Where we go one, we go all”—a common expression among QAnon adherents....

In order to take any official enforcement or regulatory action, the agency is required to have a quorum of four members on its board, but the resignation of Matthew Petersen, effective this week, leaves the commission with only three members, all of whom are still working even though their six-year terms of service have all expired. There were already three vacancies before this week’s kerfuffle. The FEC issued about $33....

McConnell, who has led the Senate GOP Party through negotiations about what will be included in the next round of coronavirus relief legislation, is running for reelection in Kentucky this November. He is the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky, initially elected to office in 1984. McConnell is campaigning against Democratic challenger Amy McGrath in his pursuit of a seventh senatorial term. Polling data published by The Economist and YouGov at the end of July showed most individuals surveyed held an unfavorable opinion of McConnell....

A video emerged from Kherson on Wednesday showing Russian troops raising the Soviet Union “victory flag”—the official symbol of the victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two—at Kherson’s eternal flame memorial on the banks of the Dnieper river. But also on Wednesday, Valery Kuleshov—a local pro-Russian blogger who had reportedly been working with the occupying forces—was shot dead in his car in Kherson by unknown assailants. Kuleshov’s killing appears to be at least the second high-profile assassination of a pro-Russian figure in Kherson since the city was occupied by Russian forces invading from Crimea to the south....

The NFL announced last week that the October 25 Jaguars/Bills game from London will be broadcast via a yet-to-be-announced digital platform. Jaguars/Bills is not exactly a marquee matchup, and the 9:30 AM start time is not exactly primetime. Still, the game figures to be one of the more significant NFL telecasts in recent memory. Outside of home markets Jacksonville and Buffalo, the game will not be available on television. That is a first for the NFL, and especially significant given the league has the greatest TV presence in sports — every game is televised on a national network, and the vast majority air on broadcast TV....

Speaking with mayors in the state’s border towns and other municipalities that have been impacted by the surge of migrants, officials were quick to thank Arizona Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly for their help at the federal level. Gila Bend Mayor Chris Riggs said if it weren’t for Sinema stepping in, his town would be overwhelmed by an influx of migrants. Despite lacking any Border Patrol facility, Gila Bend, with less than 2,000 residents, has become a drop off point for an overflow of migrants at the southern border....

Article VI, Section 3 of the Constitution says that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any office or public Trust under the United States.” (The point is to prevent an establishment of religion by allowing people of all faiths to take part in forming the government.) But what will it be like for him if he is confirmed? How will he resolve the tensions that might arise from his decision to serve two masters?...

The asteroid, named 2022 RM4, is traveling at speeds of roughly 52,500 miles per hour, and is expected to sail past the Earth at a distance of 1,427,801 miles. In comparison, the moon is only 238,900 miles away, and our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, is 38 million miles away at its closest point. The One World Trade Center building measures 1,792 feet tall at its tip. Asteroids are small rocky objects that also orbit the Sun....

In keratoconus, the cornea (the clear dome at the front of the eye) bulges into a cone shape and gets progressively steeper. In astigmatism, the cornea has an irregular shape and doesn’t focus light sharply on the retina, the light-sensing layer at the back of the eye. You should contact an eye doctor (ophthalmologist or optometrist) for a diagnosis and to receive optimal treatment for either condition. Astigmatism can be readily corrected with glasses, while keratoconus cannot....

The titanic blast originated from a supermassive black hole located at the heart of a galaxy in the center of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, located about 390 million light-years from Earth, according to a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal. These clusters are the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe, containing thousands of individual galaxies. The explosion was so powerful it released five times more energy than the previous record holder, and punched a vast hole in the plasma—superheated gas—surrounding the black hole....