USA: Trump admin proposes new rules to cut stay of foreign students and journalists

Washington, US: The Trump administration has proposed a new rule to limit to four years the period of stay for non-immigrant international students and foreign media representatives.

It plans to cut the duration further to two years for those from certain countries under the F, J and I category visas, used for students, exchange visitors and media representatives, respectively. Foreigners on these visas can currently stay for “duration of status”, or the period of course in case of students, and employment in case of media representatives. This applies also to the dependents of principal visa holders.

The proposed rule, published by the department of homeland security, will be open for comments for 30 days. But it was not clear when it will go into effect. President Donald Trump has only a few months to finalise the rule by January 2021, and longer if he is re-elected.

If he loses the November 3 election to Joe Biden, the Democrat will be under no obligation to implement it. The duration of stay can be extended either by filing for extension with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or by going back to their countries of origin for fresh visas.

The two-year rule will apply to people from countries that are either on state department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism or who have an overstay rate of over 10%. “The significant increase in the volume of F academic students, J exchange visitors, and I foreign information media representatives poses a challenge to the Department’s ability to monitor and oversee these categories of non-immigrants while they are in the United States,” the notice said.

The department added it is “concerned about the integrity of the programmes and a potential for increased risk to national security” from people on these visas.There are an estimated 200,000 Indian students in the US, which has admitted an estimated 1 million international students every year. Together, they have generated around $41 billion’s worth of economic activity and supported 450,000 jobs, according to the American Council on Education, which represents US colleges and universities. Incomes generated from foreign students are critical to the financial health of many US colleges.

Former Australian reporter in Beijing said his 14-year-old daughter was threatened with detention

 A former ABC reporter in Beijing said Monday that he and his 14-year-old daughter were threatened with detention before they left China two years ago.

Matthew Carney said he had not revealed the 2018 incident until now because he had wanted to avoid “negative consequences” for Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s operations in China. Two weeks ago reporters for the state-funded ABC and The Australian Financial Review newspaper became the last two Australian journalists working for Australian media to leave China due to threats of detention.

Carney was the ABC’s China bureau chief in 2018 when Australia passed laws outlawing covert foreign interference in domestic politics, which he said “outraged” China. Carney said the laws started “three months of intimidation and all types of threats” for him and his family.

Carney told his story in an interview aired on ABC radio and in an account posted on the news organization’s website Monday. There was no immediate response from China. Carney said he was told to bring this 14-year-old daughter, Yasmine, to a Beijing Public Security facility where interrogations and detentions were the norm.

A woman official told him that he and his daughter were being investigated for a “visa crime.” “Your daughter is 14 years old. She is an adult under Chinese law and as the People’s Republic of China is a law-abiding country she will be charged with the visa crime,” Carney said he was told.

He said the woman said his daughter could be detained “with other adults” in an undisclosed location. “She was obviously very skilled in interrogation and in ramping up the fear and the panic,” Carney said. Carney said he offered to leave China with his wife and three children the next day, but was told he could not leave the country while he was under investigation.

With his visa due to expire within days, the official said he could be placed in detention. After consultation with the Australian Embassy and the ABC, Carney said he decided to confess his guilt and apologize for the “bizarre visa violation,” on condition that his daughter was allowed to stay with the family.

Their confessions were video recorded and the woman told him she would write a report to “the higher authority” for judgment. With the family’s visas about to expire, the official said the judgment could be weeks away. But he got a phone call the next day and was told two-month extensions had been granted to their visas.

He said he thought it was “some bizarre theater” to send a message to himself and Australia’s government that “A, if you do bad reporting, B, if your government is going to introduce harsh laws we don’t agree with, well then there is a price to be paid?”

“In retrospect, that’s what I think it was, thank God. They didn’t follow through on their threats,” Carney said. Carney said he made the sudden decision to leave China after a Chinese woman threatened to sue him for defamation over a story he reported about Chinese attempts to engineer better citizen behavior.

He had legal advice that that he would be banned from leaving once legal proceedings were initiated against him. Australia updated its travel advice in July to warn its citizens of potential arbitrary detention on security grounds in China.

Chinese-Australian spy novelist and blogger Yang Hengjun has been detained in China since he arrived on a flight from New York in January last year in what some suspects is a Chinese reaction to deteriorating bilateral relations. The 55-year-old has since been charged with endangering state security.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the day the last two Australian journalists working for Australian media in China left the country that Australian citizen Cheng Lei, a business news anchor for CGTN, China’s English-language state media channel, had been detained on suspicion of national security crimes.

Australia says security agencies acted on evidence in Chinese journalist raid

Sydney, Australia: Australia’s security agencies acted on evidence related to a foreign interference investigation when a raid was conducted on Chinese journalists in Australia in June, the country’s trade minister said on Friday.

The incident, involving four Chinese state media journalists, was revealed by China’s foreign ministry this week, in the wake of two Australian journalists departing China after questioning by Chinese police. Relations between Australia and top trading partner China are at a low ebb after Beijing was angered by Canberra’s call for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, responding with trade reprisals, and Australia toughened national security tests for foreign investment.


Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said the Australian security agencies had acted according to the law. “We appropriately respond in relation to any foreign interference concerns that are raised in Australia,” he told the ABC News Breakfast television programme, when asked about the incident. “We do it purely in relation to the evidence,” he added.

Birmingham denied suggestions the June raid had provoked a retaliation from Beijing which saw exit bans placed on journalists from the Australian Broadcasting Corp and the Australian Financial Review newspaper in China last week, and the pair seeking consular protection.

China has accused the Australian embassy of obstructing law enforcement when it sheltered the two journalists who were wanted for questioning in the country and returned to Australia this week. Birmingham denied this and said Australian embassy officials had respected China’s processes to negotiate an outcome.


“The embassy engaged diligently to ensure the safety of the two individuals concerned, but they also engaged cooperatively with Chinese officials to ensure the resolution of the matter, which included the opportunity for Chinese authorities to interview the individuals concerned,” he told ABC radio. Another Australian citizen, Chinese television anchor Cheng Lei, was detained by Chinese authorities in August.

New York Times reporter Kathy Gray said Trump campaign removed her from Michigan rally

Michigan, US: A New York Times reporter claimed Thursday night that she was removed from President Donald Trump's rally in Michigan after she posted photos from the event on her Twitter. 

Kathy Gray revealed on the social media platform that she was kicked out of the rally that drew several thousand Trump supporters to Freeland, Michigan. 'I've just been kicked out of the trump rally,' Gray wrote. That tweet was then followed by another which reads: 'First for me: Trump campaign tracked me down from pics i tweeted and escorted me out.'

The photos that Gray had posted showed Trump supporters awaiting the president's arrival. In the caption of one of the images, she wrote: 'Crammed in crowd in the rain for trump rally in michigan. Not many masks.' 'Trump rally in freeland attracts thousands. Maybe 10% have masks,' Gray wrote. 

Crammed in crowd in the rain for trump rally in michigan. Not many masks pic.twitter.com/5DZ6JBVNK8

— Kathy Gray (@michpoligal) September 10, 2020

The president held the rally at the MBS International Airport where he was met by a cheering crowd of several thousand, packed shoulder-to-shoulder, mostly without masks. 'This is not the crowd of a person who comes in second place,' Trump declared to cheers before criticizing Biden's performance during the Democratic debates. 

'The first lady actually came in... and she watched the debate and she watched Joe and she said, "Darling, it's so sad,"' Trump claimed, before taking aim at Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, who he called the 'most liberal person in the USA'. The mention of Harris brought on boos and jeers from the crowd. 


'On November 3 Michigan you better vote for me! I got you so many damn car plants,' Trump said as the crowd cheered while waving 'Make America Great Again' signs. 

'If Joe Biden is elected far-left lunatics won't just be running frail Democrat cities, they'll be running the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Supreme Court, and we can't let that happen. 

'No city, town or suburb will be safe. On November 3 your vote will save America. Remember it's the most important elect we've ever had,' Trump added. Trump arrived in Michigan for the rally despite pushback from officials worried that his rallies are growing in size and flouting public health guidelines intended to halt the COVID-19 spread. 


Michigan's Democratic Gov Gretchen Whitmer raised alarms earlier on Thursday about the rally. Whitmer did not try to scuttle the rally, but warned that such events 'threaten all that sacrifice that we've made'.

Donald Trump outraged by the news published against him, Asks Fox News To Fire Reporter

Washington: US President Donald Trump has demanded that Fox News fire its national security correspondent after she confirmed claims that the Republican leader had disparaged the military-a bombshell that has dogged him for two days.

Trump came under fire after The Atlantic magazine reported that he had called Marines killed in action in World War I "losers" and "suckers" in connection with a November 2018 visit to France when he skipped a visit to a US military cemetery. The official explanation for that missed visit was bad weather. Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin said two former administration officials had confirmed to her that the president "did not want to drive to honor American war dead" at the Aisne-Marne cemetery outside Paris, implying weather was not a factor.


One official also told her that Trump had used the word "suckers" to denigrate the military, but in a different context related to the Vietnam War. "When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, 'It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker'," she quoted the unnamed official as saying.

Jennifer Griffin of Fox News Did Not Confirm ‘Most Salacious‘ Part of Atlantic Story https://t.co/rUpbSWhHac via @BreitbartNews All refuted by many witnesses. Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2020

"It was a character flaw of the President. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it," the source said. A furious Trump tweeted late Friday: "Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. FoxNews is gone!"


Trump has furiously defended himself in the wake of the story in The Atlantic, tweeting and retweeting stories condemning it as "fake news." The habitually Trump-friendly Fox News has been criticised for seemingly sidelining Griffin's reporting in its coverage of the story. A story on its front page Saturday was headlined: "Sources dispute claim Trump nixed visit to military cemetery over disdain for veterans who died."

Several of Griffin's colleagues at Fox have publicly defended her on Twitter, along with Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, who called her "fair and unafraid." 


Just before The Atlantic published its story, a poll by the Military Times and the Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families found that just 37.4 percent of active duty personnel support Trump's reelection bid, while 43.1 percent back Joe Biden.

China Vs Australia: China Detains High-Profile Australian Journalist and television anchor

Sydney, Australia: China has detained an Australian journalist working for its state-run English-language television network CGTN, Australia's foreign minister said on Monday.

The detention of journalist Cheng Lei is a new blow to deteriorating relations between the two countries that have seen China warn its citizens of travelling to Australia and vice-versa. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia was informed on August 14 that Cheng was being held by Beijing authorities. Australian consular officials spoke to Cheng in her detention facility via video link on August 27 and were in touch with her family, Payne said in a statement.

She provided no further details, but public broadcaster ABC said Cheng's friends became concerned after she stopped responding to messages in recent weeks. The CGTN website page which described Cheng as an anchor on the network's Global Business programme was no longer available after news of her detention emerged.

The ABC said Cheng was being held under "residential surveillance at a designated location", a form of detention that allows investigators to hold and question a suspect for up to six months without them being formally arrested. The broadcaster published a statement by Cheng's family in Melbourne expressing confidence that "In China, due process will be observed and we look forward to a satisfactory and timely conclusion to the matter."



"We ask that you respect that process and understand there will be no further comment at this time," the statement said. Ties began to sour between Australia and China- its biggest trading partner- more than two years ago when Australian authorities began to move against what was seen as China's growing political interference and influence peddling in the country.

Beijing was particularly infuriated by Australia's leading role in international calls earlier this year for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Since then, China has taken steps to curb key Australian imports and encouraged Chinese students and tourists to avoid the country.

Cheng is the second high-profile Australian citizen to be detained in Beijing after writer Yang Hengjun was arrested in January 2019 on suspicion of espionage. Earlier this year Australia warned its citizens they faced the risk of arbitrary detention if they traveled to China.