Category: International

The United States immigration authorities have revoked nearly 1,500 visas of international students amid reports of their involvement in pro-Palestinian protests at universities across the country.

According to Al Jazeera and the American higher education journal, Inside Higher Education (IHE), the visa cancellations target not only those who directly participated in protests but also individuals who were indirectly connected to the Palestinian cause.

The US government claims these students incited anti-Semitism, a claim strongly rejected by students, lawyers, and social activists, including many Jewish activists who actively supported the protests.

While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the revocation of 300 student visas at the end of March, sources indicate that the total number of affected students is significantly higher.

The Immigration Lawyers Association reported that 4,700 students were removed from the immigration database, known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems (SEVIS).

As of April 17th, the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers (NAFSA) said that there are reports about 1,400 students who now face deportation while the IHE confirmed that 1,489 students had lost their visas.

Affected US universities

These visa cancellations have impacted students across 240 universities and colleges across the US, including prominent private institutions like Harvard, Stanford, The Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, as well as various liberal arts colleges.

Reason behind visa cancellations

This move by US President Donald Trump’s administration comes as it claims it is trying to stop activists from taking over campuses.

“We are not going to be importing activists into the United States. The’re here to study. They’re here to go to class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine the – our universities,” said Rubio on March 28.

The large-scale visa revocations have triggered widespread concern and anxiety within the international student community as they reported that they have had their legal status in the US terminated without any notice.

Mohammad Ali Syed, who leads an immigration practice group in Washington, DC, noted that pro-Palestinian activities were not the only reasons behind visa cancellations.

Syed noted that some students lost their visas due to past traffic violations or, in some cases, with no clear explanation.

“This widespread action has led to legal challenges and raised concerns about due process and the impact on US higher education institutions,” said Syed.

He urged affected students to promptly seek advice from immigration lawyers to explore legal options for protecting their rights.

“Students can file lawsuits in federal courts, asserting violations of due process and seeking to restore their legal status. For instance, students at Michigan universities have initiated legal actions against the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that their F-1 statuses were terminated without sufficient notice or explanation,” he said.

In urgent situations, students may also file for temporary restraining orders (TRO) to prevent deportation and maintain their status while legal battles unfold, he added.

Which students have been affected?

A mass shooting allegedly carried out by the son of a local deputy sheriff with her old service weapon left two people dead at a university in Florida, police in the southeastern US state said Thursday.

Five people were hospitalised when the gunman — identified as Phoenix Ikner — rampaged through Florida State University, shooting at students, before he was shot and injured by local law enforcement.

The campus was locked down as gunfire erupted, with students ordered to shelter in place as first responders swarmed the site moments after the lunchtime shootings.

Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil told reporters Ikner, 20, was a student at the university and the son of a an “exceptional” 18-year member of his staff.

“Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene.

He added that the suspect was part of Sheriff’s Office training programs, meaning “it’s not a surprise to us that he had access to weapons.”

Ikner was taken to hospital after being shot. His condition was not immediately known.

Bystander footage aired by CNN appeared to show a young man walking on a lawn and shooting at people who were trying to get away.

Witnesses spoke of chaos as people began running through the sprawling campus as shots rang out near the student union.

“Everyone just started running out of the student union,” a witness named Wayne told local news station WCTV.

“About a minute later, we heard about eight to 10 gunshots.”

The eyewitness said he saw one man who appeared to have been shot in the midsection.

“The whole entire thing was just surreal. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

“Everything was really quiet, than all chaotic.”

‘Make them take time’

The two people who died were not students, police said, but refused to give further details.

The university, a public institution with more than 40,000 students, cancelled all classes and told students who did not live on campus to leave.

FSU President Richard McCullough said the university was working to support those affected by the attack.

“This is a tragic day for Florida State University,” he said.

“We’re absolutely heartbroken by the violence that occurred on our campus earlier today.”

Student Sam Swartz told the Tallahassee Democrat he had been in the basement of the student union when shooting started.

“Everyone started freaking out,” Swartz said, adding he had heard around 10 shots.

A group of eight people huddled in a hallway and barricaded themselves with trash cans and plywood.

“I remember learning to do the best you can to make them take time,” Swartz said, adding that mass shooters are “just trying to get as many people” as they can.

Footage on social media showed a stream of young adults walking through corridors with their hands in the air as they evacuated the building.

Mass shootings are common in the United States, where a constitutional right to bear arms trumps demands for stricter rules.

That is despite widespread public support for tighter control on firearms, including restricting the sale of high-capacity clips and limiting the availability of automatic weapons of war.

President Donald Trump called the shooting “a shame, a horrible thing,” but insisted that Americans should retain unfettered access to guns.

“I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I have been from the beginning. I protected it,” he said, referring to the part of the US Constitution gun advocates say protects firearm ownership.

“These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting — the people do.”

A tally by the non-profit Gun Violence Archive shows there have been at least 81 mass shootings — which it defines as four or more people shot — in the United States so far this year.

MOSCOW: Russia has said there are early signs of progress in efforts to end the war in Ukraine, but described its contacts with the United States on the issue as rather ‘complicated’.

“Contacts are quite complicated, because, naturally, the topic is not an easy one,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“Russia is committed to resolving this conflict, ensuring its own interests, and is open to dialogue. We continue to do this.”

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he wanted to achieve a peace deal quickly, but could not be involved in the search for a settlement indefinitely “if one of the two parties makes it very difficult”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking earlier in Paris after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, said the sides had just days to show progress or Washington would abandon its efforts.

Asked if the United States could withdraw from the search for a peace settlement in Ukraine, Peskov said that was a question for Washington.

“We believe that some progress can already be noted,” Peskov said, citing a temporary moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure, though he said Ukraine had not adhered to it.

“Therefore, certain developments have already been achieved, but, of course, there are still many complex discussions ahead.”

Peskov, when asked if the energy moratorium was over, said that it had already been a month but that no orders from the president had been received to change Russia’s position.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and a representative of Russian hawks, expressed approval for the US remarks on the X social media platform.

“American officials have said that if there is no progress on the Ukrainian case, the United States will wash its hands of it. Wisely,” Medvedev wrote in English. 

“And the EU should do the same. Then Russia will figure it out faster.”

At least 148 people were found dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a motorised wooden boat caught fire and capsized, media reports citing local officials said on Friday.

Officials said hundreds are still missing after the boat caught fire and overturned on Tuesday in the Congo River, the reports added.

The vessel was carrying as many as 500 passengers, including women and children, when it capsized in the Congo River, located in the country’s north-western region, according to the reports.

Boating accidents are common in Congo, where old, wooden vessels are the main form of transport between villages and are often loaded far beyond capacity.

Officials estimate that hundreds of people remain missing, the reports added. The number of dead was previously estimated at 50.

The boat, called HB Kongolo, caught fire near the town of Mbandaka, having departed the port of Matankumu for the Bolomba territory.

About 100 survivors were taken to an improvised shelter at the local town hall, while those with burn injuries were taken to local hospitals, Sky News reported.

The incident occurred when a fire started as a woman was cooking on board the vessel, Compétent Loyoko, the river commissioner, told the Associated Press.

Several passengers, including women and children, died after jumping into the water without being able to swim, the report added.

In 2024, at least 78 people drowned when a boat carrying 278 passengers capsized in Lake Kivu, eastern Congo. In a separate incident, at least 22 people died after a riverboat sank in December in western Congo.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has warned that Washington may pull out of negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict within days if both Moscow and Kyiv fail to make rapid progress to defuse the situation.

The warning confirmed a sudden change in US messaging, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier saying in Paris that the United States would “move on” if peace was not “doable.”

Trump has been pressing both sides for a truce but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin despite an ice-breaking call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and repeated negotiations with Moscow.

“Yeah very shortly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked to confirm what Rubio had said about abandoning talks. “No specific number of days, but quickly. We want to get it done.”

Trump refused to cast blame on either Putin, who ordered the February 2022 full-scale invasion of pro-Western Ukraine, or Kyiv’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. But he insisted both sides had to make progress.

“Now if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say: ‘You’re foolish. You’re fools. You’re horrible people’ — and we’re going to just take a pass,” Trump said.

“But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”

‘Move on’

Moscow has kept up strikes on Ukraine, killing at least two people and wounding dozens more in attacks on the northeastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy, Ukrainian officials said.

One of the few commitments Trump had wrangled from Russia — a temporary moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure — “expired” on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to an AFP question.

After meeting European officials in Paris to discuss a ceasefire, Rubio said Washington needed to figure out soon whether a ceasefire was “doable in the short term.”

“Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” he told reporters.

But speaking on a trip to Italy, US Vice President JD Vance still insisted he was “optimistic” about ending the three-year war.

Trump promised to end the war within 24 hours of taking office but has little to show for his efforts so far.

He has embarked on a rapprochement quest with the Kremlin that has alarmed Kyiv and driven a wedge between the United States and its European allies.

He and Vance also had a blazing Oval Office row in February with Zelensky, whom he still accuses of bearing responsibility for Moscow’s invasion.

Trump insisted that he was not being “played” by Moscow, which is accused by Ukraine of dragging its feet.

“My whole life has been one big negotiation and I know when people are playing us and I know when they’re not,” the billionaire property tycoon added.

‘Mockery’

Zelensky meanwhile slammed the latest attacks on his country, which came just days before Easter.

Kyiv earlier announced it had received the bodies of 909 soldiers from Russia.

“This is how Russia started Good Friday — with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, Shahed drones. A mockery of our people and cities,” Zelensky said on Telegram.

Russia said it had hit “key drone production sites” and Ukrainian military airfields.

Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.

Trump has also repeatedly expressed anger and frustration at Zelensky in a marked break from his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Ukraine is set to sign a deal next week in Washington that would give the United States sweeping access to its mineral resources.

European powers have meanwhile been seeking a seat at the table in the negotiations, particularly as Trump’s administration insists the continent should share the burden for Ukraine’s security.

France hosted meetings between US and European officials in Paris on Thursday, saying the talks had launched a “positive process.”

The meetings included French President Emmanuel Macron, Rubio and US envoy Steve Witkoff.

Many allies have however been alarmed by Witkoff — who recently met Putin in Russia — repeating Moscow’s talking points about the war.

A Japanese bus driver with 29 years of service lost his retirement package worth $84,000 after being fired for stealing $7 from passengers’ fares.

Kyoto City sacked the man, who was not named, after he was filmed by the security camera of his bus pilfering 1,000 yen ($7) in 2022.

After he was denied his retirement money of more than 12 million yen ($84,000), the driver sued the city but lost the case.

The verdict was overturned in his favour, with a court ruling that the punishment was excessive.

But on Thursday the Supreme Court delivered a final ruling in the city’s favour, reinstating the original penalty.

It ruled that the man’s conduct could undermine public trust in the system and the sound operation of the bus service.

In the original incident a group of five passengers entered the bus and paid him 1,150 yen, according to the ruling.

The driver instructed the group to drop 150 yen worth of coins into a fare collection box, and accepted a 1,000-yen bill by hand and didn’t report it properly.

Despite being caught on camera, he tried to deny it during a meeting with his superior.

The driver had been reprimanded several times during his career over various incidents, according to the ruling.

This included repeatedly smoking an electronic cigarette while on duty, albeit when there were no passengers on board.

Kyoto City hailed the decision.

“Each one of the bus drivers works alone and handles public money. We took it very seriously that embezzlement related to this area of our work took place,” Shinichi Hirai, an official at Kyoto’s public transport bureau, told AFP.

“If our strict measures were not accepted, then our organisation could become careless and it could result in eroding the public’s trust,” he said.

MOSCOW: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday cast doubt over the intentions of the United States a day before a second round of nuclear talks with Washington.

The new round will come a week after the longtime foes held their highest-level negotiations since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear deal in 2018.

“Although we have serious doubts about the intentions and motivations of the American side, in any case we will participate in tomorrow’s negotiations,” Araghchi said during a press conference in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Araghchi will set off on Saturday for Rome for a fresh round of Omani-mediated talks with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

“We are fully prepared to pursue a peaceful resolution for Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme,” Araghchi said.

Lavrov said Moscow was ready “to play any role that will be useful from Iran’s point of view and that will be acceptable to the United States.”

Russia, which commands the world’s largest confirmed arsenal of nuclear weapons, has deepened its military ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.

Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons — an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the country’s military capabilities were off limits in the discussions.

The official IRNA news agency reported Iran’s regional influence and its missile capabilities — long criticised by Western governments — were among its “red lines” in the talks.

On Wednesday, the Iranian foreign minister said Iran’s enrichment of uranium was not up for discussion, after Witkoff called for it to end.

“If there is similar willingness on the other side, and they refrain from making unreasonable and unrealistic demands, I believe reaching an agreement is likely,” Araghchi said during the press conference.

Lavrov emphasised that any potential agreement should only pertain to the nuclear issue.

“This is a fundamental point that must be taken into account by those who try to burden the negotiations with non-nuclear issues and thus create a very risky situation,” he said.

After regaining control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban seized an arsenal of aproximately a million weapons half of which are now lost, sold, or smuggled to militant groups, as per a report by the BBC.

The report featured the alarming revelation by anonymous sources, which was corroborated by the United Nations, indicating that some United States-funded arms haveeven reached Al-Qaeda affiliates.

When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they secured around a million weapons and items of miltary equipment, largely supplied by the US, as disclosed by a former Afghan official.

This arsenal of weapons included advanced American firearms, such as M4 and M16 rifles, as well as older weaponry from decades of conflict.

Sources privy to a closed-door UN Security Council’s Sanctions Committee meeting in Doha late last year revealed that the Taliban themselves admitted that at least half a million of this equipment — a staggering 500,000 items — is now “unaccounted” for.

This figure was verified by a source from the committee confirmed with other sources.

Additionally, a UN report released in February stated that Al-Qaesh affiliates including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan(TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, and Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, are gaining access to Taliban-captured weapons either directly or through the thriving black market.

When confronted with these findings by the BBC, Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, vehemently denied the claims.

“All light and heavy weapons are securely stored. We strongly reject claims of smuggling or loss,” he asserted.

However, a 2023 UN report contradicted this, stating that the Taliban allowed local commanders, who often operate with significant autonomy, to retain 20% of seized US weapons, fuelling the black market.

The UN further noted that the “gifting of weapons is widely practiced between local commanders and fighters to consolidate power,” soldifying the black market as a “rich source of weaponry for the Taliban.”

Adding to these concerns, a former journalist from Kandahar revealed that an open arms market flourished in the city for a year following the Taliban takeover, only recently moving underground and operating via WhatsApp.

This Meta-owned instant messaging platform facilitates the trade of new and used US weapons and equipment, primarily those abandonbed by US-backed forces, among wealthy individuals and local commanders.

While figures from the US body overseeing Afghan reconstruction projects (Sigar) record a lower number of weapons supplied, a 2022 Sigar report acknowledged their inability to obtain accurate information due to the diverse US departments and organisations involved in funding and supplying equipment over the years.

The Sigar report cited “shortfalls and issues with DoD’s (Department of Defence) processes for tracking equipment in Afghanistan” for over a decade.

Sigar also criticised the State Department for providing “limited, inaccurate, and untimely information” about the equipment left behind, a claim the department denies.

The issue remains politically charged, with US President Donald Trump vowing to reclaim the weaponry, estimated at $85 billion, though this figure is disputed.

“Afghanistan is one of the biggest sellers of military equipment in the world, you know why? They’re selling the equipment that we left,” Trump said during his first cabinet meeting of the new administration.

“I want to look into this. If we need to pay them, that’s fine, but we want our military equipment back.”

The Taliban responded to Trump’s claims with their spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid stating that they would use the weapons, which the Taliban often parade as a symbols of victory over the US, to defend the country.

“We seized these weapons from the previous administration and will use them to defend the country and counter any threats,” he told Afghan media.

Despite claims of disabling eqipment upon withdrawal, the Taliban have built a capable military using these arms.

Sources indicate hundreds of unused advanced vehicles and helicopters remain in Taliban warehouses, though their operational capacity for sophisticated machinery is limited. Simpler equipment like Humvees is being effectively used.

Former head of Sigar, John Sopko, deems any attempt to reclaim the weapns “pointless”, arguing the cost would outweigh the value.

Whether Trump will take any action remains to be seen, but, in the meantime, concerns about the spread of weapons in the region and access by militant groups remain unresolved.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said Washington needed to decide soon if a Ukraine truce was feasible, as he left Paris following meetings with European officials.

“We need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term, because if it´s not, then I think we´re just going to move on,” he told reporters at the Le Bourget airport.

“If it is, we’re in. If it’s not, then… we have other priorities to focus on as well.”

“The United States has been helping Ukraine over the last three years, and we want it to end, but it´s not our war,” Rubio added.

European powers have been seeking a seat at the table since US President Donald Trump blindsided Kyiv and European allies by agreeing to launch peace talks after a phone call with Russia´s President Vladimir Putin.

But Trump’s push to end the war has stumbled, with Putin rebuffing a complete truce.

Rubio however said European officials had been “very helpful and constructive with their ideas” during talks on Thursday.

“We’d like them to remain engaged… I think the UK and France and Germany can help us move the ball on this and then get this closer to a resolution,” he said.

The top US diplomat said he also hoped that European nations would consider lifting sanctions against Russia imposed after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“Part of the sanctions against Russia, many of them are European sanctions that we can’t lift, if that were ever to be part of a deal,” he said.

European countries last month had agreed to ramp up rather than lift sanctions on Russia.