Everywhere, US allies are taking steps to defend or advance their interests in the event former President Donald Trump returns to power in November elections, an even chance based on recent opinion polls in swing states.

A day before meeting Beijing's top brass, Blinken visited the bustling metropolis of Shanghai where he sampled local food, watched a basketball game and strolled along the city's famous Bund promenade on the busy Huangpu River.

Thailand circulated a proposal for Malaysia, Laos and Indonesia, to meet to address the long-running conflict said Nikorndej Balankura, adding that the meeting could be held in Thailand and "any ASEAN member may join".

Blinken's visit is the latest high-level contact between the two nations that, along with working groups on issues from global trade to military communication, have tempered the public acrimony that drove relations to historic lows early last year.

The decision comes as many young and left-leaning voters, a significant part of the user base for the short-video app, are agitated over Biden's handling of the war in Gaza and protests have escalated across universities around the country.

The growing protests follow mass arrests of demonstrators at some East Coast universities in recent days, and show a deepening dissatisfaction in the United States, historically Israel's most important ally, with the course of the war with Hamas.

Demonstrators blocked traffic around Yale's campus in New Haven, Connecticut, demanding the school divest from military weapons manufacturers.

"Our numbers are growing and we're reaching more and more people every day," said Ballingall, who publishes up to 10 posts a day and has some 540,000 followers.

"Everything we're witnessing over the last 12 months is indicating that the international global system is on the brink of collapse," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard told AFP as the group released its annual "State of the World's Human Rights" report.

Hours after the bill passed, a French newspaper reported that at least five migrants had died in an attempt to cross the Channel. The French coast guard could not confirm the details but said there were several "lifeless bodies". 

President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has touched off the worst breakdown in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and US diplomats.

Diethylene glycol is toxic to humans when consumed and can result in acute kidney failure. In the 2022 cases, the contamination in the syrups came from the raw materials used by manufacturers in India and Indonesia.

"What's happening in America's college campuses is horrific," he said in a recorded statement, accusing "antisemitic mobs" of taking over leading universities.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government said Israel was "moving ahead" with a ground operation, but gave no timeline.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at such steps when asked by a reporter in Italy about reports that his department had recommended cuts in military aid to an Israeli unit involved in violent incidents in the West Bank.

The ministry of interior official said the attack had killed one person and wounded eight others, while the military source reported three Iraqi military personnel had been wounded.