![Australian Minister of Defence Peter Dutton, left, Foreign Minister Marise Payne, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the State Department in Washington, September 16 [Andrew Harnik/Pool via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16T145807Z_1050083320_RC22RP99SL1K_RTRMADP_3_USA-AUSTRALIA-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
![Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton, who is visiting the US, said on Thursday that Australia will also be 'significantly enhancing' cooperation with the US on the development of missiles and explosive ordnance [File: Peter Parks/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/000_Hkg10155359.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![An Indonesian Airforce's F-16 Jet Fighter flies over Indonesian navy warship during an operation in Natuna islands, in the South China Sea in January 2020 [File: M Risyal Hidayat/Antara via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16T141641Z_1379227303_RC22RP92SGTS_RTRMADP_3_SOUTHCHINASEA-INDONESIA.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![Rights groups estimate that one million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are being held in camps where they have been put to work in Xinjiang [File: Dita Alangkara/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/AP21232278992773.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![The move on Thursday was agreed at an emergency summit of the Economic Community of West African States in Accra [Kweku Obeng/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16T152936Z_1991726324_RC20RP9PLPKE_RTRMADP_3_GUINEA-SECURITY.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![A Zimbabwean farmer walks through his maize field outside Harare [File: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2016-01-20T120000Z_1845250372_GF20000100829_RTRMADP_3_AFRICA-DROUGHT.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![People carry national flags as they hold a moment of silence marking the one-year anniversary of Beirut's port blast, near the site of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2021 [File: Emilie Madi/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/2021-08-04T161403Z_2097198012_RC2GYO99L3TD_RTRMADP_3_LEBANON-BLAST-ANNIVERSARY.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian slammed Washington's dealings with Australia and the UK as a 'stab in the back' for Paris [File: Susana Vera/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16T073446Z_1250723278_RC2VQP9GGXTH_RTRMADP_3_USA-SECURITY-BIDEN-FRANCE.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![Baradar, once seen as the likely head of a Taliban government, had not been seen in public for some time [File: Karim Jaafar/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/000_9LA3TA-1.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
![Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton, who is visiting the US, said on Thursday that Australia will also be 'significantly enhancing' cooperation with the US on the development of missiles and explosive ordnance [File: Peter Parks/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/000_Hkg10155359.jpg?resize=120%2C80)
Polls open in Russia’s three-day parliamentary election
Parliamentary and local polls in the world’s largest country spread across 11 time zones began on Friday.
![Voters will be able to cast ballots through to Sunday [Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-16T113753Z_614111749_RC2ZQP9BX75X_RTRMADP_3_RUSSIA-ELECTION-PREPARATIONS.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
SHORT ANSWER
Back to shopping, not to work: What’s up with the US recovery?
The latest data from the United States Department of Commerce and the Labor Department paint a nuanced picture.
![United States Commerce Department data shows retail sales climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent in August even as many economists predicted a decline, but initial weekly claims for aid from jobless Americans ticked upward after hitting a pandemic low [File: Kriston Jae Bethel/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/377285640.jpg?resize=570%2C380)