Category World News

United States moves to restrict visa length for foreign students, reporters

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The administration of US President Donald Trump intends to shorten the amount of time that foreign students, participants in cultural exchanges, and journalists are permitted to stay in the country.

The changes are necessary to combat “visa abuse,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday, and give the government more flexibility to “vet and supervise” foreign visa holders.

A spokesperson for the unnamed DHS said in a news release that “for too long, previous administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the United States virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars, and disadvantaging U.S. citizens.”

The Trump administration is attempting to impose stricter restrictions on all forms of immigration with the proposed time caps.

F visas for students, which are limited to four years, J visas for cultural exchange, which are also four years, and I visas for reporters, which are only allowed to stay for 240 days and have a four-year extension, are the three different types of visas that are affected.

China’s journalists would only have 90 days to travel there.

Student visas have typically been issued for the duration of an academic program up until this point. However, the proposal on Wednesday sparked concerns that the time restrictions could cause harm to foreign students.

A typical undergraduate university program in the US lasts four years, but some PhD programs can last longer. The length of time it takes to earn an academic diploma can also be affected by research opportunities, changes in degree paths, and other factors.

Foreign students are frequently charged more than their American counterparts, which adds up to a significant portion of the funding of US higher education.

In the US in 2024, there were 1.6 million foreign students studying with an F visa.

However, the Trump administration claimed that foreign students were using their visas to stay indefinitely.

In its news release, the DHS claimed that “foreign students have taken advantage of US generosity and have become “forever” students who are enrolled in higher education while residing in the US.

The Trump administration has aimed to increase government scrutiny of foreign students. Additionally, it announced earlier this year that all student visa applications would be temporarily suspended. The administration stated it would increase monitoring of social media activity while the application process was being reviewed when appointments first started in June.

Since Trump’s second term in office ended in January, thousands of student visas have also been suspended.

Some of the student activism, such as pro-Palestine protests, has resulted in their resignations.

In one instance, the administration detained and threatened to deport a PhD student from Turkey named Rumeysa Ozturk after she co-authored an editorial in which she wrote that called for her campus to cut ties with Israel in the wake of the country’s devastating conflict in Gaza.

Ozturk was released from an immigration detention facility in May after a legal dispute, but her case is still pending and she is still at risk of being deported.

UN staff urge rights chief Volker Turk to call Gaza war a ‘genocide’

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UN staff members have written to Volker Turk, the organization’s human rights chief, to publicly denounce the “genocide” that his office has waged, claiming that it violates the international human rights system.

The Staff Committee at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva on Wednesday sent the letter to Turk, which included an appeal. Al Jazeera obtained a copy of the letter.

According to the letter, “a broad cross-section” of OHCHR staff members stated that, “based on extensive reporting by UN mechanisms and independent experts, the legal threshold for genocide had been met.”

Concerned staff expressed concern that the OHCHR should “reflect this assessment more explicitly in its public communications” and that failing to do so “risches eroding OHCHR’s standing as a trusted authority on human rights for everyone in the world.”

OHCHR staff expressed “profound frustration” over the magnitude, scope, and nature of reported violations, as well as their effects on civilians, particularly women and children.

It urged the UN to refrain from repeating historical mistakes, noting that the UN’s “silence” during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which claimed more than 1 million lives, was “often cited as one of its] greatest moral failures.”

On January 28, 2023, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk holds a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela.

The letter continued, “OHCHR has a strong legal and moral obligation to denounce acts of genocide.” The UN and the human rights system’s own credibility are undermined by failing to denounce an ongoing genocide.

More than 300 people have died from starvation as a result of a confirmed famine in some of the enclave, while at least 62, 966 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 160, 000 have been wounded during the conflict, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Turk: Shared with “moral indignation”

The UN rights chief claimed that the staff had raised significant concerns in Turk’s response to the letter, which was reported by the Reuters news agency.

In addition to calling on staff to remain united as an Office in the face of such hardship, he said, “I know we all share a feeling of moral indignation at the horrors we are witnessing, as well as frustration in the face of the international community’s inability to put an end to this situation.”

OHCHR spokesman Ravina Shamdasani responded to a request for comment on the letter that was leaked by the news agency, claiming that staff members had had difficult circumstances to document the abuses that were taking place because of the conflict in Gaza.

She told Reuters, “There have been and will continue to be discussions internally about how to proceed.”

Growing rumors of a genocid

The UN has not used the term, with UN officials claiming that it is up to international courts to determine genocide, despite the fact that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have all spoken in favor of it.

In 2023, South Africa saisied the International Court of Justice for a genocide case against Israel, but it has not yet been heard.

The term is also used by some rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Francesca Albanese, an independent UN expert.

Cyclist Froome to undergo surgery after airlift rescue

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Following a “serious training crash,” which left the British cyclist airlifted to a French hospital, Chris Froome, four-time Tour de France winner, will have surgery.

Froome’s team, Israel-Premier Tech, claimed on Thursday that he was “stable and did not sustain any head injuries,” but added that scans revealed a pneumothorax, five broken ribs, and a lumbar vertebrae fracture.

Following the accident, which occurred close to Saint-Raphael, Froome was taken to a hospital in Toulon by helicopter on Wednesday. No other cyclists or vehicles, according to his team.

His most recent success was the 2018 Giro d’Italia. Additionally, he won the Spanish Vuelta twice in 2011 and 2017, wrapping up his four Tour victories, the first of which came in 2013, and the second of which came in 2015 and 2017.

Following a training crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphine, which he used to fine-tune his bid for a fifth Tour title that was unreachable, the 40-year-old Froome never reached his previous best level. He suffered rib, elbow, and right femur injuries in the collision.

My neighbourhood in Gaza is gone, reduced to rubble and silence

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Shujayea, my home town in east Gaza, is gone! Without a single stone left on another, the entire building was reduced to rubble. The dust and destruction that once accompanied the sounds of children’s laughter, the vendors’ calls, and the familiar rhythms of daily life now smother the streets. What was once a vibrant, enthralling community has been completely destroyed.

My brother Mohammed returned to Shujayea to check on our family home a few days ago. When he returned, he informed my father that only a few shattered columns and broken walls were left. We learned soon after that my father had braved the most extreme danger and witnessed it with his own eyes. He made the decision to walk through the remnants of our past, a place where every step can lead to death.

My grandfather and father spent years working on the house that embodied my dad’s dreams and left marks of his labor and sacrifice. He raised his children there, where we celebrated weddings and birthdays, and where numerous family memories were made. It is now only rubble, though.

However, this particular house is not the only thing that our family is losing. My sister Heba’s demolished home, my sister Heba’s demolished apartment, my sister Somaia’s two burned apartments, and my father’s destroyed home are now my own burned apartments, my sister Nour’s bombed apartment, and my sister Nour’s demolished apartment. Add to this list my uncle Hassan’s destroyed building, my uncle Ziad’s building, my uncle Zahir’s residence, my aunt Umm Musab’s apartment, my aunt Faten’s apartment, and my aunts Sabah, Amal, and Mona’s completely destroyed homes. And our immediate family only suffered these losses. Numerous friends, neighbors, and relatives have witnessed their homes destroyed, and their memories are buried beneath the debris all around us.

Not just the staggering financial value of what we have lost, this is important. Although the homes were filled with valuables, including furniture, personal belongings, and valuable possessions, much more was lost. We have lost something that is irreplaceable. A house can be rebuilt, but the connection to the familiar streets and community where generations of your family have lived cannot be changed with bricks and cement.

More than just buildings, Shujayea. Its members bonded through shared histories, relationships, and memories of everyday life. The ancient Ibn Othman mosque, which echoed with prayers during Ramadan, the small corner shop where we gathered to chat, and the neighborhood bakery where we bought fresh bread at dawn. These were the areas where children played, families celebrated, and neighbors fought it out for each other in the good and bad times.

When a neighborhood like Shujayea is completely destroyed, the walls become the result. No reconstruction project can truly heal because of the destruction that ties neighbors, displaces families across shelters and refugee camps, and leaves behind a deep wound. Although a rebuilt house may have four walls and a roof, it won’t be the same as the one that once housed generations of tales.

My family is not unique to this loss. Nearby neighborhoods across Gaza have been flattened completely. The history of a family, the joy of the children, the elders’ wisdom, and the love of a once-thriving community are hidden in each pile of rubble. The human cost of this war cannot be accurately expressed in terms of money or damage assessment, but every home destroyed is a silent example of it.

Identity is what we have lost in addition to property. A person’s life unfolds in a home, where milestones are observed, where grievances are shared, and where bonds are forged. A whole population is being displaced from the places that defined them by the destruction of so many homes. It is a deliberate destruction of both lives and those of memory, heritage, and belonging.

What was lost will not be recovered by reconstruction. If new structures ever are constructed, they will adorn the graves of our memories. They won’t bring my father’s years of hard work back to life, nor will they restore his sense of security and comfort. They won’t bring back the warm, familiar, and vibrant neighbourhood we were used to know.

Generations-long will be left with the wound caused by Shujayea’s destruction. Not just humanitarian aid or reconstruction funds, though. The heart and soul of a community is purposefully destroyed here. No amount of concrete can rekindle friendship, rekindle memories, or reunite dead neighbors.

Shujayea has vanished. And with it, a portion of us has been interred. We continue to cherish the stories, the love that once permeated our homes, and the hope that justice will prevail in the future. Because they can destroy our homes, they can also destroy the memories and bonds we hold dear to us in our hearts.

Pakistan out of Asia Cup 2025 as hockey tournament begins in India

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As the Asia Cup hockey competition gets underway in India on Friday, Pakistan will miss the event for the first time in its history due to security concerns.

Three months after India and Pakistan returned from a devastating war on their shared border, an eight-nation tournament is being held in Rajgir, a city in India’s northeastern state of Bihar.

Bangladesh will take over in Group B of the upcoming tournament from the three-time former champions and one of the founding members of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF).

Last week, Hockey India’s (HI) President Dilip Kumar Tirkey confirmed Pakistan’s withdrawal from the competition by citing security concerns of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) in India.

Due to security concerns, Pakistan will not participate in this tournament, Tirkey told Indian news agency ANI.

Tirkey claimed that Pakistan had never rejected the invitation and that they had withdrawn of their own accord.

Reports in Pakistani media claimed that the PHF had informed HI and the AHF of their decision earlier in August, while their omission was confirmed by the tournament’s schedule announcement last week.

Before a ceasefire was reached, India and Pakistan were at odds with one another for the first four days of the conflict in May. There are conflicting accounts about the casualties, but more than 70 have been killed by missile, drone, and artillery fire on both sides.

Numerous Indian media reports that the nation’s sport organizations would avoid joining Pakistan in international competitions in the wake of the escalations. In the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup, both nations were given the same group, but Pakistan played at a neutral venue.

The ICC brokered a mutual agreement that would “host” its neighbor at a neutral venue for all upcoming global cricket tournaments, which was supported by the decision.

However, no hockey tournament officials have ever negotiated any of these agreements.

India and Pakistan have a rich history of international hockey matches.

Pakistan’s double jeopardy

By not participating in the Asia Cup, Pakistan, which last won the tournament in 1989, will lose out on a chance to advance to the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026.

The qualifiers will feature the Asia Cup champions, who will also be guaranteed a spot in the 2026 World Cup. Second- and sixth-placed teams will also be included. Pakistan currently ranks 15th in the men’s FIH World Hockey rankings, with bleak prospects for World Cup qualification.

In the meantime, India will relish the chance to claim their first continental title at home and advance to the World Cup, which Belgium and the Netherlands will host together in August 2026.

South Korea, the reigning champion, will also be favored and aim for a sixth Asian title that will extend beyond the mark. Other participating countries include China, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Japan, China, and Chinese Taipei.

India's captain Harmanpreet Singh, left, is challenged by Pakistan's Afraz during the men's Asian Champions Trophy hockey match between India and Pakistan in Chennai, India, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/R. Parthibhan)
During the men’s Asian Champions Trophy hockey match between India and Pakistan on August 9, 2023, Pakistan’s Afraz challenges India’s captain Harmanpreet Singh, left.

shared hockey glory

Both India and Pakistan have a national hockey team, and both of these countries have a history of playing the sport up until the early 1990s.

The partition of India in 1947, which led to the emergence of Pakistan and a decades-long, largely political conflict, impacted sport.

The then-Indian team, which included athletes from both sides of the now-divided border, had until then, and they had won gold at the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Olympic Games.

India and Pakistan have combined to win 11 gold medals at the Olympics, five world titles, three FIH Champions Trophy victories, and dozens of hockey legends.