MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin denounced as “absurd” on Friday a resolution proposed by U.S. lawmakers to stop recognizing Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president if he stays in power after 2024, and described it as U.S. meddling in Russian affairs. Putin’s term as president is due to end in 2024 and he can seek two more terms under constitutional amendments made during his presidency. Under the previous constitutional limits, he would have been barred from running again. The resolution introduced by two U.S. congressmen says the amendments were illegal and any attempt by Putin to remain in office after May 2024 “shall warrant no recognition on the part of the United States,” according to a statement on the website of Congressman Steve Cohen, one of the lawmakers behind it.

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NEW YORK (Newsweek) - President Joe Biden’s approval rating has hit a new low, according to the latest poll from Quinnipiac University. The survey, which was released Thursday found just 36 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance while 53 percent of respondents disapproved of the president’s performance—the lowest rating he’s received in a Quinnipiac national poll so far. Republicans and independents largely disapproved of Biden, 94 percent and 56 percent, respectively. Over eight of 10 Democrats who responded to the poll, on the other hand, backed the job the president’s done so far. Biden’s new low comes as most Americans disliked his handling of key issues: the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, foreign policy and climate change. According to the polling institute, Biden received his lowest marks in all four areas this week.

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LONDON (The Guardian) - Emergency crews in western Canada have been trying to reach 18,000 people stranded by landslides and struggling to find food among bare grocery store shelves after devastating flooding. With communities in the region braced for more torrential rain in already inundated areas next week, the premier of British Columbia province declared an emergency and gave an emotional address in a press conference on Thursday. Appearing to fight back tears, John Horgan said: “The positive I’m going to take out of this is that it had shown British Columbians coming together supporting each other.

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NEW DELHI (Dispatches) -Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he has decided to repeal three controversial farm laws against which farmers have protested for more than a year. “Today I have come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to withdraw all three agricultural laws,” Modi said on Friday in a contrite address to the nation coinciding with a major Sikh festival – the religion of many protesting farmers. “In the Parliament session starting later this month, we will complete the constitutional process to repeal these three agricultural laws.” The legislation the farmers object to, introduced in September last year, deregulates the sector, allowing farmers to sell produce to buyers beyond government-regulated wholesale markets, where growers are assured of a minimum price (MSP).

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LONDON (Al-Jazeera) - Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have exhumed the bodies of two civilians and returned them to their families who claim Indian troops used them as human shields and executed them “in cold blood” during a gunfight earlier this week. Police earlier said the two men – Altaf Ahmad Bhat, 48, and Mudasir Gul, 40 – died in the crossfire when government forces on Monday attacked suspected rebels at a shopping complex in Srinagar, the disputed region’s main city. Witnesses and families of the civilians and one suspected rebel have denied the police’s version of events, saying they were deliberately killed by Indian troops while being used as human shields amid a standoff.