Category World News

According to President Donald Trump, Harvard University won’t reveal its international students to the US government.

The federal government’s approval of Harvard, which allows it to enroll international students, was removed on May 22 by the Trump administration. The administration’s effort was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on May 23.

Trump stated to reporters on May 25 that “some of the issues with Harvard are that there are about 31 percent of foreigners coming to Harvard, but they won’t tell us who the people are.” We will determine whether those foreign students are acceptable and provide a list of them. Many people will, I assume, be alright. And I’m assuming there will be many bad students there.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Harvard did not provide the information the organization needed about its international students. That was one of the reasons Harvard’s certification was revoked, according to DHS. In its lawsuit against the Trump administration, Harvard, however, disagreed with that.

The decision regarding Harvard’s compliance with providing DHS with the additional information requested is still undetermined. DHS inquired about student activities, including “illegal” and “dangerous or violent activity.” Immigration law experts disagree with Trump’s claim that the US government is unaware of the identities of Harvard’s international students.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVP, is required by the Department of Homeland Security for US colleges and universities that enroll international students.

Every student visa holder’s information is stored in SEVP’s database. Addresses, classes, grades, jobs, social media accounts, and many other things, according to Charles Kuck, an Emory University law professor and immigration attorney from Atlanta.

According to court records, Harvard has been granted the right to enroll international students since 1954. The university is required to provide the US government with detailed information about its international students as part of the certification process.

Every two years, schools renew their SEVP certification. Harvard claimed in its lawsuit that its compliance with the university’s “seamless recertification across this period, which included more than 14 presidential administrations.”

Additionally, all foreign students must apply for and receive student visas through the State Department in order to enter the US. A person must be enrolled in a SEVP-certified university to be eligible for a student visa. Students must provide the US government with in-depth biographical information during the application process for a visa.

A White House spokesman said Trump was “making a simple ask” for Harvard to abide by the government when we asked for comment.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program: What Is It?

According to the DHS website, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program “collects, maintains, analyses, and provides information so only legitimate foreign students or exchange visitors can enter the United States.” Additionally, SEVP makes sure that all institutions that accept students from other nationalities are certified and adhere to federal laws and regulations.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which manages records for foreign students and accredited universities, is managed by DHS as part of the program. What records must universities maintain and report in accordance with immigration law to maintain certification.

According to Sheila Velez Martnez, a professor of immigration law at the University of Pittsburgh, “US entry and exit data, US residential address changes, program extensions, employment notifications, and program of study changes” The US government has access to this information, the statement states.

Students are not granted visas by the certification program. Visas are issued by the state department. A person must complete a form and schedule an interview before applying for a student visa. Students are required to provide biographical and employment information, as well as information about their families, and respond to security questions, as well as information about their criminal histories as part of the application process.

The Trump administration claims Harvard provided no information to international students.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent a letter to Harvard a&nbsp on April 16 asking for details on every international student enrolled at the university. Noem requested “relevant information” regarding “illegal activity,” “dangerous or violent activity,” “known threats to students or university personnel,” and “known deprivation of rights of other classmates or university personnel.”

Noem claimed that disobeying the request would result in a “voluntary withdrawal” from the SEVP certification program.

According to Bunnell’s email, which is included in the court filing, on April 30, a Harvard lawyer,  reacted to Homeland Security with information about 5, 200 international students.

The university claimed it was not attempting to revoke the certification and that, while some Noem’s requests used terms that are not defined in the immigration law that require information from universities, “Harvard is committed to good faith compliance and is producing responsive materials that we believe are reasonably required” by law.

The information included student identification numbers, names, birthdates, nationalities, and enrollment details, such as academic status, coursework, and credit hours, according to Harvard’s lawsuit. In an email to DHS from Harvard, Harvard also provided details on international students who left and why they did so, which could include “a range of reasons, including but not limited to disciplinary action.”

DHS responded on May 7th, claiming that the information Harvard provided “does not completely fulfill the Secretary’s request.” It reaffirmed its original request.

On May 14, Harvard responded by stating that it had “not been aware of any criminal convictions” of international students and had identified three students with disciplinary consequences.

Harvard claimed it did not find any victims of students who violated the rights of their classmates, faculty, or staff.

Noem informed Harvard that its certification had been revoked on May 22 in a letter to the university.

You have lost your right to access information because you have refused to comply with numerous requests to provide it to the Department of Homeland Security.

Our decision

Trump claimed that the university “refuses” to disclose who its international students are.

Harvard and all other accredited universities must provide the US government with in-depth biographical information about each international student who enrolls at their institution. that includes information about the coursework they are taking, as well as their names, addresses, and contact information.

Additionally, all foreign students must obtain student visas before entering the US. Students who have enrolled in a government-certified university must apply through the State Department in order to receive these. Additionally, students must provide the federal government with biographical and security information during that process.

Following a Russian suggestion made during talks in Istanbul on May 16, the two countries exchanged 1, 000 prisoners of war on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, their largest exchange in three years.

But any confidence built by that gesture may have been dissipated by Russia’s launching of its largest long-range aerial attacks against Ukrainian civilians during the same three days.

At least 16 civilians were killed when Russia launched more than 900 kamikaze drones and 92 missiles. At least 800 drones were used in the Tula, Alabuga, and Tatarstan regions of Russia as a result of days of Ukrainian strikes on the country’s military infrastructure.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Tuesday that Germany might supply Ukraine with the 1, 000km- (620-mile) -range Taurus missiles it has asked for at any time, without warning Russia, strengthening Ukraine’s ability to devastate Russian military factories.

Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz declared that Ukraine’s weapons would not be subject to range restrictions. Additionally, Merz announced that Germany would support Kyiv in developing long-range missiles of its own on Wednesday as Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the announcement as the president of Ukraine visited Berlin.

The Kremlin has reacted with alarm. If such choices are made, they will inevitably go against our political goals, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov. In response to European nations’ actions preventing a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis, Russia requested a UN Security Council meeting.

Yet even before the announcements by Germany, the prospect of any “peaceful settlement” had been dealt a blow by the drone and missile exchanges between Moscow and Kyiv.

Russia’s drones landed in cities, igniting the skyline with exploding apartment blocks, unlike Ukraine’s.

Less than their typical rate, the Ukrainian defenders managed to down 82 percent of the drones. Military intelligence sources told The Economist that Russia was flying its drones at an altitude of more than 2km (1.3 miles), out of the range of mobile heavy machinegun units, and had adapted the drones to use Ukraine’s own internet signal for navigation, immunising them from electronic interference.

Russia continued to launch ground attacks in eastern Ukraine, asserting that it had taken control of six settlements in the Sumy, Kharkiv, and Donetsk regions. In preparation for a wider ground offensive, Russia also built a salient close to Pokrovsk, its main target this year.

“There is currently no indication that they are seriously considering peace or diplomacy. There is, in fact, strong evidence that they are putting together new offensive operations. In his Monday evening address, Zelenskyy stated that Russia is anticipating a protracted war.

Even United States President Donald Trump got angry with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a man he openly admires.

Putin has been the subject of a post by Trump on his social media platform that read, “Something has happened to him.” He has become “absolutely crazy”!

Trump told reporters, “We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities”.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, criticized the US president’s response, citing “emotional overstrain of everyone.”

The next diplomatic steps

Despite a proposal from Russia, Ukraine has continued to pursue diplomatic relations by writing a memorandum outlining its conditions for a ceasefire on May 27.

By Thursday morning, neither Kyiv nor Washington had received a reciprocal memorandum that Russia was supposed to submit.

Pope Leo XIV had offered the Vatican as a venue for the next round of talks that are to follow this exchange of memorandums, but Lavrov thought it “somewhat inelegant when two Orthodox countries would use a Catholic venue to discuss the root causes of the crisis”, preferring to return to Istanbul.

Russia has urged a conditional ceasefire that addresses “the root causes of this conflict and how they must be removed like a malignant tumour.” One of those “root causes” of the conflict is considered to be Ukraine’s division with the Moscow Patriarchate and the construction of an autocephalous church in Kyiv.

Another is the use of the Russian language. Although Ukraine is largely bilingual, a law requiring use of Ukrainian by public servants was passed in 2019. Russia calls that discriminatory, but it did not ban Russian.

“Ukraine, which lies beyond the constitutional borders of the Russian Federation, is home to millions of people who speak Russian. Speaking about Ukrainian territory that is outside the Kremlin’s control, Lavrov said at a press conference on May 23 that it is their native language. He claimed that it would be illegal to leave them to the junta government in Kyiv, which has forbid them from speaking. “We cannot allow this to happen under any circumstances”.

The Zelenskyy government’s very existence is another “root cause,” according to the Kremlin.

Even though the Ukrainian parliament has extended his presidency and the constitution allows him to continue in power after his constitutional term, Russia insists Zelenskyy is illegitimate.

Zelenskyy himself offered to resign last February, if that meant Russia pulled back its troops and Ukraine were allowed to join NATO.

Trump rejected NATO membership for Ukraine in a peace plan he gave to Kyiv on April 17 and made the offer to the US, not Russia.

However, Poland’s charge d’affaires in Ukraine, Piotr Lukasiewicz, stated at the VOX Ukraine conference on May 24 that it supports Ukraine’s membership of NATO and the EU.

He said relations had evolved during the three-year war. Due to economic and political interests, we are now convinced that Ukraine should be a political, economic, and social partner for security reasons. NATO should be a part of Ukraine. This is our strategic, political, historical and civilizational interest”, Lukasiewicz said.

The buffer zone between Moscow and Moscow

Putin and local officials held a televised news conference on May 20 for his first visit to Kursk since it had been secured from a Ukrainian counter-invasion. One asked him to create a buffer zone in Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region. He addressed Putin, “Sumy must be ours.”

Putin made the announcement that a buffer zone would be established inside Ukraine the following day, a claim he first made in March of last year.

A military expert told the Russian state-owned news agency TASS that Russian troops were advancing along a 15km- (9-mile-) wide front in Sumy to establish that buffer zone.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former head of Russia’s National Security Council and deputy head, went a day later. The buffer zone might look like this if the Zelenskyy government receives more military aid, he wrote on his Telegram channel and shows a map with almost all of Ukraine in shade.

More sanctions for Russia

Trump criticized Putin on Sunday, saying that Russia “deserves full-scale pressure, everything that can be done to limit their military capability.”

Even though the Sunday-to-Monday overnight attacks on Ukraine were bigger and more deadly than the attacks of the day before, Putin resisted trying to limit that capability through further sanctions after speaking with him on the phone the following day.

He now faces pressure to introduce sanctions if Putin doesn’t agree to a ceasefire. Russia can anticipate decisive action from the US Senate “if nothing changes.” Our bill will isolate Russia and make it a trading hub, according to Senators Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Europe is preparing an 18th package of sanctions against Russia.

Johann Wadephul, Germany’s foreign minister, stated in a statement to ARD on Sunday that those sanctions would be a response to Russia’s most recent attacks on Ukraine’s cities.

Last week, the Reuters news agency exclusively reported that Ukraine has requested secondary sanctions against Western companies that sell high-tech products from Russia to third parties and those who purchased Russian oil from countries like India and China. Ukraine also reportedly asked the EU to take sanctions decisions by majority decision, to prevent Russophilic members from derailing them.

Even Russia-leaning bloc members, including Hungary and Slovakia, are following the EU’s plan to completely boycott Russian energy exports by 2027, according to EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen.

He most recently presented a progress report to members of the European parliament. “By 2022, half of the coal we imported into the EU was Russian. We completely stopped importing it. Oil imports decreased from 27% to 31%. And gas – from 45 percent in 2022 to 13 percent today”, Jorgensen said on May 22, lamenting the fact that the EU still paid Russia 23 billion euros ($26bn) last year for energy.