WORLD

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Menendez, on Friday applauded India's decision to boycott the Beijing Olympics, 2022.

Taking to Twitter Bob Menendez wrote "I applaud India for joining diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics. We stand with all countries that reject the CCP’s heinous human rights abuses & cold-blooded effort to turn Olympics 2022 into a political victory lap."

India announced a diplomatic boycott of the games just ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday terming China’s decision to field a People’s Liberation Army soldier involved in the June 2020 Galwan clashes as the torchbearer for the Winter Olympics Games in Beijing as “regrettable”.

Slamming China for politicising the Winer Olympics, India on Thursday announced that its Chargé d' Affaires (Cd’A) will not be attending the opening or closing ceremony of the games in Beijing.

This comes a day after a regiment commander of the People’s Liberation Army, who fought against India in the 2020 Galwan Valley clash, was made the torchbearer during the Olympics relay on Wednesday.

The images of Qi Fabao were shared in a tweet by the Global Times, an English news outlet associated with the Chinese Communist Party.

President Joe Biden is ordering 2,000 US-based troops to Poland and Germany and shifting 1,000 more from Germany to Romania, demonstrating to both allies and foes America's commitment to NATO's eastern flank amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Russia fired back with a sharply worded objection, calling the deployments unfounded and "destructive." Russian President Vladimir Putin also had a new telephone exchange with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But readouts from both governments showed no progress, with Putin saying the West was giving no ground on Russia's security concerns and Johnson expressing deep concern about Russia's "hostile activity" on the Ukrainian border, referring to Putin's buildup of 100,000 troops there.

At least 1,500 people are known to have been killed in year-long protests against the coup in Myanmar, with thousands more possibly killed in the armed conflict, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

At least 11,787 people were unlawfully detained in Myanmar in that period, including 8,792 who remain in custody, UN human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said.

Myanmar's ruling junta has disputed past estimates of the death toll made by rights groups.

Shamdasani announced the figures for arbitrary detentions at a U.N. briefing in Geneva, adding: "This is for voicing their opposition to the military, whether in peaceful protests or through online activities even."

Calling Pakistan's new ambassador-designate to the United States Masood Khan a "jihadist," and a "terrorist sympathiser," an American lawmaker has urged the Biden administration to reject his diplomatic credentials amid continued deterioration in Washington's ties with Islamabad.

In a letter to President Joe Biden last week, Republican Congressman Scott Perry, a US military veteran, called Khan a "bona fide terrorist sympathizer" and an "unscrupulous individual" who is working to undermine US interests as well as "the security of our Indian allies."

Acceptance of Khan's credentials following his nomination for the US ambassadorship has reportedly been put on hold by the state department, but Perry said while he was encouraged by that, it is not enough. "I urge you to reject any diplomatic credentials presented to you by Masood Khan and reject any effort by the Government of Pakistan to install this jihadist as Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States,” he said.