&w=3840&q=100)
US will start revoking visas of Chinese students, says Rubio
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US will start revoking visas of Chinese students linked to the Communist Party or studying sensitive subjects. read more
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the US will start revoking visas of Chinese students, especially those linked to the Communist Party or studying in sensitive areas.
'The US will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,' Rubio said in a post on X.
China remains at the centre of former President Trump's global trade war, which has shaken financial markets, disrupted supply chains, and raised fears of a major global economic slowdown.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
The number of Chinese students in the US has dropped to about 277,000 in 2024, down from a peak of 370,000 in 2019. The decline is partly due to rising tensions between the US and China and stricter checks on Chinese students by the US government.
New guidelines from the US State Department are adding more checks on international students, as part of Trump's wider effort to tighten control over foreign admissions in US universities.
This is a developing story.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
29 minutes ago
- The Hindu
U.S. President Donald Trump holds Pennsylvania rally to promote deal for Japan-based Nippon to 'partner' with U.S. Steel
President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday (May 30, 2025) to celebrate a details-to-come deal for Japan-based Nippon Steel to invest in the U.S. Steel, which he says will keep the iconic American steelmaker under the U.S. control. Though Mr. Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmaker's bid to buy Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as 'partial ownership' by Nippon. It's not clear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalised or how ownership would be structured. Mr. Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the storied company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the country's supply chain, industries like auto manufacturing and national security. Mr. Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the U.S. since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect the U.S. manufacturing. U.S. Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed 'partnership' but also has not disclosed terms of the arrangement. State and federal lawmakers who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which Nippon will buy U.S. Steel and spend billions on U.S. Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and Minnesota. The company would be overseen by an executive suite and board made up mostly of Americans and protected by the U.S. Government's veto power in the form of a 'golden share.' In the absence of clear details or affirmation from the companies involved, the United Steelworkers union, which has long opposed the deal, this week questioned whether the new arrangement makes 'any meaningful change' from the initial proposal. 'Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel's facilities if it owned the company outright,' the union said in a statement. 'We've seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position.' The White House did not offer any new details on Thursday (May 29, 2025). The U.S. Steel did not respond to messages seeking information. Nippon Steel also declined to comment. No matter the terms, the issue has outsized importance for Mr. Trump, who last year repeatedly said he would block the deal and foreign ownership of US Steel, as did former President Joe Biden. Mr. Trump promised during the campaign to make the revitalisation of American manufacturing a priority of his second term in office. And the fate of the U.S. Steel, once the world's largest corporation, could become a political liability in the midterm elections for his Republican Party in the swing state of Pennsylvania and other battleground states dependent on industrial manufacturing. Mr. Trump said on Sunday (May 25, 2025) he wouldn't approve the deal if the U.S. Steel did not remain under the U.S. control and said it will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh. In an interview on Fox News Channel on Wednesday (May 28, 2025), Pennsylvania Republican Rep Dan Meuser called the arrangement 'strictly an investment, a strategic partnership where it's American-owned, American-run and remains in America.' However, Mr. Meuser said he hadn't seen the deal and added that "it's still being structured.' Pennsylvania Republican Sen David McCormick came out in favour of the plan, calling it 'great' for the domestic steel industry, Pennsylvania, national security, and U.S. Steel's employees. A bipartisan group of senators, joined by then-Senate candidate Mr. McCormick, had opposed Nippon Steel's initial proposed purchase of the U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion after it was announced in late 2023. In recent days, Mr. Trump and other American officials began touting Nippon Steel's new commitment to invest $14 billion on top of its $14.9 billion bid, including building a new electric arc furnace steel mill somewhere in the U.S. Pennsylvania's other senator, Democrat John Fetterman, who lives across the street from the U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Steel Works blast furnace — didn't explicitly endorse the new proposal. But he said he had helped jam up Nippon Steel's original bid until 'Nippon coughed up an extra $14B.' The planned 'golden share' for the U.S. amounts to three board members approved by the U.S. government, which will essentially ensure that the U.S. Steel can only make decisions that'll be in the best interests of the United States, Mr. McCormick said Tuesday (May 27, 20225) on Fox News. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is seen as a potential Presidential candidate, had largely refrained from publicly endorsing a deal but said at a news conference this week that he was 'cautiously optimistic' about the arrangement. In an interview published on Thursday (May 29, 2025) in the conservative Washington Examiner, Mr. Shapiro said: 'The deal has gotten better. The prospects for the future of steelmaking have gotten better.' Chris Kelly, the mayor of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, where the U.S. Steel's Irvin finishing plant is located, said he was 'ecstatic' about the deal, though he acknowledged some details were unknown. He said it will save thousands of jobs for his community. 'It's like a reprieve from taking steel out of Pittsburgh,' he said.
Time of India
32 minutes ago
- Time of India
Saudi Arabia warned Iran to reach nuclear deal with Trump or risk Israeli strike
Saudi Arabia's defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: take President Donald Trump's offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel. Alarmed at the prospect of further instability in the region, Saudi Arabia's 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son, Prince Khalid bin Salman, with the warning destined for Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two Gulf sources close to government circles and two Iranian officials. Present at the closed-door meeting in Tehran, which took place on April 17 in the presidential compound, were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the sources said. While media covered the 37-year-old prince's visit, the content of the King Salman's covert message has not been previously reported. Prince Khalid, who was Saudi ambassador to Washington during Trump's first term, warned Iranian officials that the U.S. leader has little patience for drawn-out negotiations, according to the four sources. Trump had unexpectedly announced just over a week earlier that direct talks were taking place with Tehran, aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. He did so in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had travelled to Washington hoping instead to win support for attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. In Tehran, Prince Khalid told the group of senior Iranian officials that Trump's team would want to reach a deal quickly, and the window for diplomacy would close fast, according to the four sources. The Saudi minister said it would be better to reach a deal with the U.S. than face the possibility of an Israeli attack if the talks broke down, according to the two Gulf sources. He argued that the region - already riven by recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon - could not withstand a further escalation in tensions, said the two Gulf sources and one senior foreign diplomat familiar with the discussions. Authorities in Saudi Arabia and Iran did not respond to requests for comment. Live Events The visit by Prince Khalid - the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman - was the first by a senior member of the Saudi royal family to Iran in more than two decades. Riyadh and Tehran had long been bitter rivals, often backing opposing sides in proxy wars, until a rapprochement brokered by China in 2023 helped to ease the tensions and restored diplomatic ties. Over the past two years, Iran's regional position has been undermined by heavy military blows inflicted by Israel on its allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and toppling of its close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Western sanctions, meanwhile, have hit its oil-dependent economy hard. Mohanad Hage Ali, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank in Beirut, said that Tehran's weakness had offered Saudi Arabia the opportunity to exert its diplomatic influence, seeking to avoid a regional conflagration. "They want to avoid war because war and confrontation with Iran will have negative implications on them and their economic vision and ambitions," he told Reuters. IRAN WANTS A DEAL Reuters was unable to determine the impact of the prince's message on Iran's leadership. In the meeting, Pezeshkian responded that Iran wanted a deal to ease economic pressure through the lifting of Western sanctions, the four sources said. However, the Iranian officials, the sources added, expressed concerns over the Trump administration's "unpredictable" approach to negotiations - which have veered from allowing limited uranium enrichment to demanding the complete dismantling of Tehran's enrichment program. Trump also has threatened to use military force if diplomacy fails to rein in the clerical establishment's nuclear ambitions. One of the Iranian sources said that Pezeshkian emphasized Tehran's eagerness to reach a deal but that Iran was not willing to sacrifice its enrichment program just because Trump wanted an agreement. The ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran have already been through five rounds to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, but multiple stumbling blocks remain, including the key issue of enrichment. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Iran might pause uranium enrichment if the U.S. releases its frozen funds and recognises its right to refine uranium for civilian use under a "political deal" that could lead to a broader nuclear accord, according to two Iranian sources familiar with the talks. The semi-official Fars news agency in Iran quoted a foreign ministry spokesman denying the report. The White House did not directly address Reuters' questions about whether it was aware of the Saudi warning to Iran. "President Trump has made it clear: make a deal, or face grave consequences, and the whole world is clearly taking him seriously, as they should," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. Trump said on Wednesday he warned Netanyahu last week not to take any actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran, and said the two sides were "very close to a solution now". Israeli authorities did not respond to a request for comment. HIGH STAKES A four-day visit by Trump to the Gulf this month annointed Saudi Arabia as the most prominent member of a new axis of Sunni states in the Middle East, filling the void left by Iran's shattered alliance. During the trip, Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman mediated a reconciliation between Trump and Syria's new Sunni leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa. Tehran's regional sway, meanwhile, has been diminished by military setbacks suffered by Iran and its allies in the Shi'ite-dominated Axis of Resistance, which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militias In the meeting, Prince Khalid urged Iran to rethink its regional policy, noting such a shift would be welcomed, especially by Riyadh, the sources said. Although he stopped short of directly blaming Iran, the Saudi minister voiced concern over a possible repeat of the 2019 drone attacks on the facilities of state oil company Aramco - attacks the kingdom attributed to Iran and its Houthi allies, despite Tehran's denial. Iranian officials maintained that while Tehran holds some influence over the Houthis, it does not fully control their actions, the Iranian sources said. Decades of hostility between the Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia destabilised the Gulf and fuelled regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria. The 2023 detente was driven in part by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed's economic ambitions and desire for stability, and has led to increased contacts between the governments. However, neither Saudi Arabia nor other regional powers see Iran as a dependable partner for peace and they fear its actions could jeopardize their ambitions for economic development, diplomats and regional experts say. Prince Khalid implored the Iranians to avoid actions by them and their allies that might provoke Washington, stressing that Trump's response would likely be more strident than his predecessors, presidents Joe Biden and Barak Obama. In turn, he assured Tehran that Riyadh would not let its territory or airspace to be used by the United States or Israel for any potential military action against Iran, the sources said.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
44 minutes ago
- First Post
Why West's propaganda and China's state-controlled media share a common anti-India bias
The more India's visibility as an important power in international affairs grows, the more anti-India biases will become prominent, and the reflection of them in the recent India-Pakistan conflict was just the beginning read more To understand why the West's, the so-called beacon of democracy, narratives aligned with China's, against India's, a longer look has to be taken. Image: REUTERS The media is considered to be the fourth pillar of democracy. However, this does not mean that there exists no press in non-democracies. In the world's two most powerful countries, which follow two completely different models of governance, the media does exist. The US boasts, or at least used to boast of, a free press, while China also has media, albeit state-controlled primarily. In the internet age, wherein access to information has become truly available at our fingertips, the lines between the conventional tenets of journalism, new media, citizen journalism, propaganda, and state-led disinformation, as well as misinformation, have all become blurred. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The job of a journalist thus becomes much more tedious and painful, even though it is assumed that access to technology and the internet makes it easier. In this context, the importance of fact-checks has become more important than ever before. In reporting on foreign policies, while the coverage is supposed to be objective, the recent conflict between India and Pakistan revealed that the media from China as well as from the West have similar biases. While it is understandable as to why state-controlled media from China would not conduct fact checks and support a narrative provided by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), supporting its all-weather friend, Pakistan, understanding why free press from the West, which touts values of freedom, objectivity and balanced coverage, would propel Pakistani propaganda. Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the BBC have all been accused of peddling Pakistani propaganda without fact checks, even though India was conducting regular media briefings and the Press Information Bureau was actively countering Pakistani and Chinese disinformation online. One of the most glaring examples was when all the prominent media houses from China and the West were propelling the narrative of India's jets being shot down by Pakistan. To date, neither has Pakistan provided photographic or videographic evidence of the apparently shot-down jets from India. It is simple logic that if Pakistan had to bolster its narrative, it would circulate evidence of the shot-down jet that landed in its territory. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD To give due credit, Reuters did publish a story of how a low-quality image of an Indian fighter jet engulfed in flames after a crash in September 2024 has been falsely claimed online to show an Indian jet downed in the recent conflict between India and Pakistan. However, China Daily still continues with its disinformation. China economically benefitted from the disinformation as well. Pakistan Today reported that the shares of Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the Chinese aerospace company behind the J-10 fighter jet used by Pakistan, surged by 20 per cent on May 12, after reports of Pakistan shooting down India's jets were circulated. Nevertheless, Avic Chendu's aircraft shares plummeted following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address on India's Operation Sindoor, while Indian defence stocks rose. Given that Chinese media is state-controlled and will always follow the orders of the CCP and support Pakistan, it can be understood why it will not conduct fact checks. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Fact checks are not hallmarks of state-controlled media in any case. Also, China sought to economically benefit from the disinformation. China's abuse of the democratic media space in India in pushing its malicious disinformation, while other countries cannot or do not do the same to China, owing to its tightly controlled media environment, is a sad reality the world lives with. To understand why the West's, the so-called beacon of democracy, narratives aligned with China's, against India's, a longer look has to be taken. The World Press Freedom marked India at 151, ignoring the vibrant media landscape that India has. The index, to begin with, relies heavily on perceptions and opinions rather than hard data, making it susceptible to bias. Also, the specific weighting of indicators and the sources of data are not always fully disclosed, leading to concerns about transparency and potential biases. The Press Council of India (PCI) has attempted to engage with Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the organisation behind the index, to understand the methodology and inputs but has not received a response. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The question here is why has there been no response from RSF? The answer here is also the answer to why so-called free press will align with state-controlled Chinese media in tarnishing India's image. But it is also pertinent to understand how free the free press in the West truly is. In Turkey, in 2025, over 1100 people, including journalists, were arrested during a crackdown on anti-government protests. BBC correspondent Mark Lowen was detained in March and deported to London for reporting on these protests. At least 14 journalists were also injured in these protests. In Poland, a journalist was arrested and handed over to Ukrainian authorities; in Romania, an Irish RT journalist was detained in Bucharest while covering elections and deported to Istanbul, and this actually is a big issue with media suppression within the EU. In Estonia, Andrea Lucidi, a Russian-Italian reporter, was detained by Estonian border guards for his criticism of Nazism in the Baltic states; in the UK, British journalist Kit Klarenberg was arrested by anti-terrorism police and interrogated for at least five hours for his political views; and Vanessa Beeley had a similar incident. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In 2022, in Germany, two Italian journalists were detained while reporting on a climate protest in Rome, and a Swedish journalist, Markus Jordö, was arrested in Stockholm while covering a climate demonstration. In Turkey in the same year, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom documented 40 cases of journalist arrests or detentions in Turkey, which remains a significant hotspot for the criminal prosecution and imprisonment of media personnel. In the US in 2024, at least 48 journalists were either detained or arrested, as per the US Press Freedom Tracker, and the number represents a surge compared to the previous two years combined. However, somehow these numbers do not change the rankings which emanate from the freedom of the press in Western countries. As much as the media is supposed to be free of biases, biases remain. On the coverage of India, even if it is on foreign policy and international relations, the biases reflect which have led to a lack of fact checks from the dominant Western media. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The more India's visibility as an important power in international affairs grows, the more these biases will become prominent, and the reflection of them in the recent India-Pakistan conflict was just the beginning. India needs to create its own rankings of media freedom across the world and rank countries as per clear indicators. Additionally, India should come up with legal provisions to counter malicious reportage, fearmongering and perception manipulation. The author is Associate Professor, Chinese Studies and International Relations, Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Haryana. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
