Politics

The precarity facing international students in the United States has reached unprecedented levels under Trump's second administration. As an international student arriving in America in 2003 during the "war on terror," I experienced firsthand how someone who "looked like me" faced persistent outsider status amid campus jingoism, airport security checks, and widespread racism. However, today's environment has become dramatically more hostile. Trump's targeting of international students for pro-Palestine activism has materialized exactly as he promised during his campaign. He pledged to revoke visas of "radical, anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners" participating in campus protests, a promise he's actively implementing since returning to office. Several high-profile cases illustrate this crackdown. Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who participated in campus protests, was detained by ICE in March and has been held in Louisiana for over a month. Turkish PhD student […]

South Sudan has reversed its position in a diplomatic standoff with the United States, announcing it will allow entry to a deported man following the US decision to revoke visas for all South Sudanese citizens. The dispute began when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Saturday that the US would revoke all South Sudanese visas, citing the country's refusal to accept the return of its citizens being removed from the US. South Sudan initially claimed the case involved someone incorrectly identified as South Sudanese who was subsequently sent back to the US. However, the government now says it will permit the man to enter the country "in the spirit of the friendly relations," despite maintaining he is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Officials stated he could arrive in Juba as early as Wednesday. "As a result of this […]

US President Donald Trump announced on April 7 that his administration is engaged in direct talks with Iran regarding its nuclear program, stating, "We're having direct talks with Iran. On Saturday, we have a very big meeting." Trump emphasized these were truly direct negotiations, not through intermediaries: "A lot of people say, oh, maybe you're going through surrogates or you're not dealing directly, you're dealing through other countries. No, we're dealing with them directly." He suggested a diplomatic solution "would be preferable to doing the obvious," seemingly referencing military action against Iran, which US ally Israel has undertaken twice in the past year. Iran, however, contradicted Trump's claim. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that indirect talks would occur in Oman, with himself and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff communicating through Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi as intermediary. Araghchi described […]