Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be meeting for the second time in as many months as they visit Kazakhstan for a session of an international group founded to counter Western alliances.

Putin and Xi last got together in May when the Kremlin leader visited Beijing to underscore their close partnership that opposes the U.S.-led democratic order and seeks to promote a more "multipolar" world.

Rishi Sunak has covered thousands of miles in the past few weeks, but he hasn't outrun the expectation that his time as Britain's prime minister is in its final hours.

United Kingdom voters will cast ballots in a national election Thursday, passing judgment on Sunak's 20 months in office, and on the four Conservative prime ministers before him. They are widely expected to do something they have not done since 2005: Elect a Labour Party government.

Two American prisoners were being held in custody in Afghanistan, a Taliban government spokesman said Wednesday, and an "exchange" for Afghans held in Guantanamo Bay had been discussed with the United States.

"We should be able to free our citizens in (an) exchange, as American citizens are important for them (the United States), just as Afghans are important for us," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference.

Russia said Wednesday it had destroyed two Ukrainian naval drones that were advancing on its Black Sea port of Novorossiysk overnight.

"Two unmanned boats travelling in the direction of Novorossiysk were destroyed in the waters of the Black Sea," the defense ministry said in a post on Telegram.

A Russian drone and missile barrage on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed three people and wounded more than a dozen, the regional governor said Wednesday.

"The enemy continues insidious attacks. It sent missiles and attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Unfortunately, it did not go without consequences. Three people were killed" and 18 people were wounded, the official, Sergiy Lysak wrote on social media.

Over 20 years ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stood before a crowd at Friday prayers to denounce the United States for its disenchanted electorate.

"It is disgraceful for a nation to have a 35% or 40% voter turnout, as happens in some of the nations that you see having presidential elections," Khamenei said in 2001. "It is obvious that their people do not trust their political system, that they do not care about it and that they have no hope."

A United Nations-led meeting held in Qatar with the Taliban on increasing engagement with Afghanistan does not translate into a recognition of their government, a U.N. official said.

The gathering on Sunday and Monday in Qatar's capital of Doha with envoys from some two dozen countries was the first time that representatives of the Afghan Taliban administration attended such a U.N.-sponsored meeting.

President Joe Biden had the kind of weekend on which history pivots — trying to stabilize his campaign after a disastrous and demoralizing debate against former President Donald Trump, then gathering with family as previously planned at a secluded mountain retreat where they discussed the path forward.

The 81-year-old Democrat went into the Thursday night debate hoping to banish questions about his advanced age. But his meandering and at times incoherent answers only generated new fears that Democrats were stumbling toward a brutal loss in November's election and led to talk that he should bow out of the race.

Candidates in France on Tuesday faced a deadline to register for the run-off round of a high-stakes parliamentary election, as President Emmanuel Macron's centrist camp and a left-wing alliance scrambled to prevent the far right from taking power.

Former President Evo Morales on Sunday accused his political ally-turned-rival President Luis Arce of deceiving Bolivians by staging a "self-coup" last week to earn political points among the electorate, marking a sharp downturn in an already fraught relationship.

Morales was initially among the country's most powerful voices to say the approximately 200 members of the military who marched on Bolivia's government palace alongside armored vehicles Wednesday had attempted a "coup d'état." He called for "all those involved in this riot to be arrested and tried."