30/05/2025

FRIDAY | MAY 30, 2025

8

Marcos retains defence, justice secretaries

China condemns US plan to revoke student visas

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has retained his defence, justice and interior secretaries but replaced the solicitor-general, his office said, after asking for all his Cabinet to resign as he tries to reinvigorate his government. Last week’s call for “courtesy resignations”, which was extended to include the heads of companies owned or controlled by the government, followed a disappointing performance in the May 12 midterm elections. “This is not a purge,” Lucas Bersamin, executive secretary to Marcos, told a press briefing yesterday, saying it was a drive by the president to improve the quality of public service. “The president has no patience for underperformance.” He said Marcos had declined the requested resignations of Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla. Bersamin confirmed Solicitor-General Menardo Guevarra’s announcement that he had been replaced by Darlene Berberabe, Dean of the College of Law of the University of the Philippines. The reshuffle is widely seen as Marcos’ attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term, although there have not been wholesale changes in the two rounds announced so far. He said Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo will be replaced by his undersecretary. Bersamin also said Police Major General Nicolas Torre III will be the next National Police chief. – Reuters Four sentenced in freezing deaths case WASHINGTON: Two human traffickers were sentenced on Wednesday for their roles in a smuggling operation that resulted in the 2022 deaths of four Indian nationals, including a three-year-old and an 11-year-old, the US Department of Justice said. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, was sentenced to over 10 years in prison for organising logistics and co-conspirator Steve Anthony Shand, 50, was sentenced to over six years for picking up migrants in the United States. A jury convicted the duo for their work in a “large-scale human smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on fraudulent student visas and then smuggled them into the United States”, justice officials said. In January 2022, amid severe weather, Patel and Shand attempted to smuggle 11 Indian nationals from Canada into the United States on foot, the DOJ said, adding the recorded wind chill temperature was -37.8° Celsius. A US Border Patrol agent found Shand’s van stuck in the Minnesota snow, where Shand claimed there were no other people stranded out in the cold. But five more people emerged from the fields, including one who was airlifted to a hospital for lifesaving care. Shand was arrested along with two migrants. But the family of four was not found until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their frozen bodies in an isolated area in Canada. “The boy was wrapped in a blanket with his father’s frozen glove covering his face,” the DOJ said. – AFP

o Crackdown labelled ‘discriminatory’

pressure saying Washington will “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields. “We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” he said. But the slew of measures also threaten to pressure students from countries friendly to the US. In Taiwan, a PhD student set to study in California complained of “feeling uncertain” by the visa pause. “I understand the process may be delayed but there is still some time before the semester begins in mid-August,” said the 27-year-old student who did not want to be identified. “All I can do now is wait and hope for the best.” – AFP on China,

the Institute of International Education. Trump in his previous term also took aim at Chinese students but focused attention on those in sensitive fields or with explicit links with the military. Mao on Wednesday said that China urged the United States to “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those from China”. Rubio has already trumpeted the revocation of thousands of visas, largely to international students who were involved in activism critical of Israel. A cable signed by Rubio on Tuesday ordered US embassies and consulates not to allow “any additional student or exchange visa ... appointment capacity until further guidance is issued” on ramping up screening of applicants’ social media accounts. On Wednesday, Rubio heaped

Blasting for “unreasonably” cancelling Chinese students’ visas, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing had lodged its opposition with Washington. Rubio had upped the ante after China criticised his decision a day earlier to suspend visa appointments for students worldwide at least temporarily. The Trump administration has already sought to end permission for all international students at Harvard University, which has rebuffed pressure from the president related to protests. Young Chinese people have long been crucial to US universities, which rely on international students paying full tuition. China sent 277,398 students in the 2023-24 academic year, although India for the first time in years surpassed it, according to a State Department-backed report of the US

BEIJING: China reacted in fury yesterday at the US government’s vow to revoke Chinese students’ visas, condemning President Donald Trump’s crackdown on international scholars as “political and discriminatory”. Trump’s administration on Wednesday said it would “aggressively” remove permissions for Chinese students, one of the largest sources of revenue for American universities, in his latest broadside against US higher education. The US will also revise visa criteria to tighten checks on all future applications from China and Hong Kong, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Lee Jae-myun casting his early vote with his supporters in Seoul yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Record South Korean turnout for early voting SEOUL: South Koreans began turning out in record numbers for early voting yesterday in the country’s snap presidential polls set to take place next week, election commission data showed, as both of the leading candidates cast their ballots. blackout period banning opinion polls began on Wednesday, cast his ballot in Seoul. “In order to overcome the current crisis ... and start again as a Korea of recovery and growth, please vote,” Lee said after casting his ballot at a university district in the city. expand and reorganise the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to promote equal rights and deal with any reverse discrimination.

on the last published Gallup Korea poll before the blackout period put Lee at 49% public support, followed by his main conservative rival Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party with 35% and another conservative candidate, the New Reform Party’s Lee Jun-seok, on 11%. Kim and Lee Jun-seok also voted yesterday. Kim had eroded what was a more than 20 percentage point gap with Lee Jae-myung on May 12, but has failed to convince Lee Jun-seok to drop out and back him to improve his chances. – Reuters

About 8.7 million people, or 19.6% of eligible voters, had voted as of 6pm (5pm in Kuala Lumpur), according to National Election Commission data, the highest turnout for the equivalent period in a presidential poll and compared with 17.6% in the 2022 vote. South Korea has 44.39 million eligible voters and early voting is allowed until today. The top three candidates based

His comment came after the Bank of Korea cut interest rates yesterday and slashed its 2025 growth forecast for Asia’s fourth largest economy to 0.8% from 1.5% previously. Lee pledged to establish a new Ministry of Climate and Energy and

The June 3 election comes after months of political turmoil and a power vacuum following an attempt by former leader Yoon Suk Yeol to impose martial law. The liberal Democratic Party’s candidate Lee Jae-myung, the frontrunner in the polls before a