Austrian leader: won’t go to Beijing games, but no protest

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s leader says no high-ranking politicians from his country will attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, but he says that is entirely because of coronavirus restrictions in China and is not a diplomatic protest. Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s comments to Tuesday’s edition of German daily Die Welt came after foreign ministers from Austria and several other European Union nations made clear that they have little appetite to join the U.S. initiative for a diplomatic boycott of the games because of concerns over China’s human rights record. Nehammer said that “we are against a politicization of the games and are coordinating in the EU.”