India Suspends Water Treaty, Downgrades Ties With Pakistan After Attack
By and Swati Gupta
Save
India will suspend a decades old World Bank-negotiated water sharing treaty and downgrade diplomatic ties with Pakistan in retaliation for one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in years.
The Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty with its neighbor and reduce staff at their High Commissions, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in New Delhi on Wednesday. Pakistan's National Security Committee will meet on Thursday to respond to India's decisions, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said in a post on X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘They are in shock': Indian students fear Trump has ended their American dream
For weeks, Subash Devatwal's phone has not stopped ringing. Some of the calls have been from distressed students, at other times it is their panicked parents, but all have the same question – is their dream of studying in the US still possible? Devatwal runs an education consultancy in Ahmedabad, the main city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is one of thousands of such organisations that exist across the country, helping Indian students achieve what many consider to be the ultimate symbol of success: getting into an American university. It has long been a booming business for Devatwal. Families in India will often invest their entire life savings to send their children to study in the US and last year there were more than 330,000 Indians enrolled at American universities, more than any other foreign nationality, overtaking Chinese students in numbers for the first time in years. But this year the situation looks drastically different. As Donald Trump's administration has taken aim at international students – first implementing draconian screening measures over political views and then last week ordering all US embassies globally to indefinitely pause all student visa interviews – many Indian students and their families have been left in limbo. Trump's unilateral decision to block Harvard University from admitting international students, which was later blocked by the courts, also caused widespread panic and stoked fears that foreign students at other universities could get caught in the president's crosshairs. 'The students are in shock. Most of them spend several years preparing to study in the US,' said Devatwal. He said many of his clients were now hesitant to pursue a US degree, given the high levels of turmoil and uncertainty following the Trump administration's new policies. Indian students can expect to pay between $40,000 to $80,000 (£29,500 to £59,000) a year on tuition alone to study in the US. In previous years, Devatwal's organisation sent more than 100 students to American universities but this year he said the number had dropped to about 10. Instead, families were shifting their focus to the UK and other European countries. A recent analysis by the Hindu newspaper estimated a 28% drop in Indian students going to the US in 2025. 'Families contribute their savings, take out loans from banks and borrow from relatives, all in the hope that the student will secure a good job abroad, repay the debt, and build a promising future,' said Devatwal. 'In such uncertain circumstances, parents are understandably reluctant to let their children take such a risky path.' Brijesh Patel, 50, a textile trader in Surat, Gujarat, said he had been saving money for over a decade to make sure his son could go to a US university, including selling his wife's jewellery and borrowing money from relatives. 'Everyone in the family wanted our son to go to the US for his studies and make something good of his life,' said Patel. His 21-year-old son, who he asked not to be named for fear of retribution by the US authorities, had secured a place at two American universities for his master's degree and Patel had already paid 700,000 rupees (£6,000) to consultancies who helped with the applications. But amid the turmoil under Trump, Patel said his son was being advised not to even apply for his student visa, due to the uncertainty and high probability of rejection. 'We simply can't take that risk. If our son goes now and something goes wrong, we won't be able to save that kind of money again,' he said. However, Patel said he was not willing to give up on the family dream just yet. 'I am an optimist, and my son is willing to wait a year,' he said. 'We're hoping that things improve by then. It's not just my son who will be living the American dream, it's all of us: my wife, our relatives and our neighbours. I've struggled my whole life – I don't want my son to face the same struggles here in India.' The fear among prospective and current students was palpable. Several Indian students studying in the US declined to speak to the Guardian, fearing it could jeopardise their visas. In India, a student selected in December to be one of this year's Fulbright-Nehru doctoral fellows – a highly competitive scholarship that pays for the brightest students to study abroad at US universities as part of their PhD thesis – said the applications of their entire cohort had recently been demoted back to 'semi-finalists'. The student, who asked to remain anonymous over fears it would affect their application, said they had invitation letters from top Ivy League universities for the fellowship, which is considered one of the most prestigious scholarships in the US, but now everything was up in the air. 'We are supposed to start in October and our orientation was scheduled for May, all the flights and hotels were even booked, but then it all got cancelled. Now we've been informed all our applications are under review by the Trump administration,' said the student. They said it had caused 'huge panic and anxiety' among those accepted. 'I know a lot of people are going back through their social media, deleting things and doing a lot of self-censoring.' Piyush Bhartiya, a co-founder of the educational technology company AdmitKard, said many parents who had been set on sending their children to the US were rethinking their plans. He cited one example of a student who had been admitted to New York University for the coming year but was instead planning to go to the London School of Economics after the US visa interviews were paused. Bhartiya said Indian students primarily went to the US to study Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths – and so the focus had shifted to other countries strong in these areas. 'Germany is the main country where students are shifting to for Stem subjects,' he said. 'Other countries like Ireland, France, the Netherlands, which are also gaining substantial interest in the students. At the undergraduate level, the Middle East has also seen a lot of gain in interest given parents feel that it is close by and safer and given the current political environment they may want their kids closer to the home.' Among the Indian students forced to abandon their plans is Nihar Gokhale, 36. He had a fully funded offer for a PhD at a private university in Massachusetts, but recently received a letter saying the funding was being withdrawn, as the university faced issues under the Trump administration. 'It was quite shocking. I spoke to people at the university, and they admitted it was an exceptional situation for them too,' said Gokhale. Without the funding, the US was financially 'out of the question' and he said he had an offer from the UK he now intended to take up. 'For at least the next three or four years, I'm not considering the US at all,' he said. • This article was amended on 4 June 2025 to correct a conversion error. An earlier version said that 700,000 rupees was £68,000 instead of saying £6,000.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Total discrimination': Chinese students facing US visa ban say their lives are in limbo
Chinese students in the United States are questioning their future in the country after the state department announced last week that it would 'aggressively' revoke visas for Chinese students and enhance scrutiny of future applications from China and Hong Kong. Chinese students hoping to study at Harvard, the US's oldest and wealthiest university, are under particular pressure after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it was banning the school from enrolling new foreign students. The presidential proclamation cited Harvard's links with China as a particular cause for concern. Related: 'They are in shock': Indian students fear Trump has ended their American dream For Jerry*, a 22-year-old applied mathematics student at the University of California, Los Angeles, the uncertainty started last month, when the Trump administration suddenly halted Harvard University's ability to enrol any international students. Jerry has a place on a health data science masters programme at Harvard, which is due to start in the autumn. The US government's attempt to ban Harvard from accepting international students appears to have been blocked, at least temporarily, by the courts. But Trump's announcement on Wednesday invokes a different legal authority. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, has announced that the authorities will be targeting Chinese students specifically, nationwide. It is 'total discrimination,' Jerry said. 'I don't think anyone would consider that reason sufficient. That's just pushing Chinese students to go elsewhere'. Unsure about whether or not he will be able to enrol at Harvard, Jerry is considering taking up a place on a DPhil (PhD) programme at Oxford University in the UK. He said on Thursday that following Trump's latest attack on Harvard, Oxford seems like an even more likely option. Although he hopes to study at Harvard, Jerry feels lucky to have a back-up plan. 'A lot of the people who accepted Harvard offers don't have other options. So it must be much more anxious for them'. Across the US, universities have been scrambling to find ways to reassure the hundreds of thousands of Chinese students on their campuses about their academic future. In a memo sent to Chinese students at University of Oregon, the school described the state department's announcement about revoking the visas for Chinese students as 'vague' and said: 'A revoked passport does not impact your legal status in the US because it is only an entry document used when entering the US'. However, the university warned that a revoked visa could lead to removal proceedings by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Warning about being targeted by ICE have taken on a new gravity since the agency started targeting international students with the lawful right to remain in the country. They include Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestine activist who was detained despite holding a green card to reside in the US. Khalil is now fighting a deportation order. Steven*, a 34-year-old Chinese PhD student at the University of Oregon, said that although he is not planning to apply for a new student visa soon, the prospect of an encounter with ICE concerned him. 'Nowadays, even if you have a green card, you have legitimate status, you could get caught by ICE, because these guys are crazy'. Steven has been in the US for a decade. In that time, the US has become a less attractive destination for Chinese students, he said, something he sees borne out in his part-time job helping Chinese students with their college applications. The numbers wanting to study in the US have declined, with people favouring countries in South-east Asia, such as Singapore, which are more culturally similar to China. The US is 'just not that friendly' any more, Steven says. The loss of top Chinese students in the US would be a blow to academic research, and to the funding for higher education institutions, experts say. In the 2023-2024 academic year, there were about 277,400 Chinese students in the US, according to government statistics. That is a 25% drop compared to 2019-2020. 'By barring Chinese students and scholars from America, the Trump administration will strangle the pipeline of high-end talent into our universities, companies, and research institutes, sparking a serious deficit in talent and expertise that will damage American competitiveness,' said Denis Simon, non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, who specialises in science and technology policy in China. The state department's announcement last week specified that students with connections to the Chinese Communist party (CCP) or studying in 'critical fields' would be included in the visa crackdown. For years, the US has tried to root out Chinese espionage in academia, with concerns raised about CCP-backed programmes to recruit top talent in science and technology fields that are strategically important to China. But academics and campaigners say that this has bled over into racism, with all Chinese researchers or those of Chinese heritage being treated with suspicion. Jerry, the mathematics student, said he has experienced discrimination in the US, but not on campus. But if Chinese researchers, staff and PhD students feel they have to leave the US because of an increasingly hostile environment, 'it's going to be a disaster for American universities,' he said. *Names have been changed Additional research by Lillian Yang
CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
Carney invites Modi to G7 summit despite strained ties between Canada and India
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta later this month, an invitation Modi accepted despite strained ties between the countries. The countries expelled each other's top diplomats last year over the killing of a Sikh Canadian activist in Canada and allegations of other crimes. The invitation prompted anger from the World Sikh Organization of Canada, which wrote to Carney in May asking him not to invite Modi. Tensions remain high between Canada and India over accusations about Indian government agents being involved in the murder of a Canadian activist for Sikh separatism in British Columbia in 2023. Carney extended the invitation to Modi in a phone call between the two leaders on Friday. The summit runs from June 15 to 17. Carney noted Canada is in the role of G7 chair and said there are important discussions that India should be a part of. 'India is the fifth-largest economy in the world, the most populous country in the world and central to supply chains,' Carney told reporters, adding that there has been some progress on law enforcement dialogue between the two countries. 'I extended the invitation to Prime Minister Modi and, in that context, he has accepted,' Carney said. Carney said there is a legal process underway in the killing of the Canadian Sikh activist and said he would not comment on the case, when asked by a reporter if he thought Modi was involved. The tit-for-tat expulsions came after Canada told India that its top diplomat in the country is a person of interest in the 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and that police have uncovered evidence of an intensifying campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government. Modi said he was glad to receive a call from Carney and congratulated him on his recent election victory. 'As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests. Look forward to our meeting at the summit,' Modi said in a social media statement. Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland. Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Nijjar's murder. Balpreet Singh, legal counsel and spokesperson for the World Sikh Organization of Canada, called Carney's invitation to Modi a 'betrayal of Canadian values.' 'The summit to which Mr. Modi is being invited falls on the anniversary of the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar two years ago,' he said. 'So for us, this is unacceptable, it's shocking and it's a complete reversal of the principled stand that Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau had taken.' Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. In 2023 US prosecutors said an Indian government official directed a failed plot to assassinate another Sikh separatist leader in New York.
