10/06/2026

WEDNESDAY | JUNE 10, 2026

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China, North Korea agree to expand ties

The H-1B programme offers 65,000 visas annually, with another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years. Employers seeking a visa for a foreign worker before Trump’s proclamation typically paid about US$2,000 to US$5,000 in fees depending on various factors. Trump, in imposing the hefty new fee, in a proclamation said the H-1B programme “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour”. The fee does not apply to visas granted to foreign citizens already in the United States on student visas. – Reuters ICC chief prosecutor suspended THE HAGUE: A key governing body of the International Criminal Court on Monday suspended chief prosecutor Karim Khan as he faces sexual abuse allegations against a member of his office. The 21-member bureau of the Assembly of State Parties (ASP) decided to refer Khan’s case to the wider ASP that represents every member country of the ICC. The bureau decided “by qualified majority ... to suspend the prosecutor from duty with immediate effect pending the final decision of the Assembly of States Parties as the competent decision-maker,” the body said in a statement. “The bureau emphasises that this suspension is not an indication of the final outcome.” The decision will have little practical impact on the functioning of the court, as the 55-year old Khan stepped aside in May last year, taking a leave of absence to fight the allegations that he denies. He has already been removed from pleading in the ICC’s most high-profile case against former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte. A special session of the ASP will be convened as soon as possible to discuss the Khan case, according to the statement. The 55-year-old Briton hit the headlines when he sucessfully applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war. He was among the first to be sanctioned by Israel’s ally, the United States, which expressed outrage over the arrest warrants. – AFP Massive swells, gales batter NZ capital WELLINGTON: Waves of up to 11m and gale force winds battered New Zealand’s capital yesterday, prompting mandatory evacuations along parts of Wellington’s south coast and disrupting transport services. Authorities ordered residents to leave waterfront properties in Owhiro Bay, Island Bay, Houghton Bay and Breaker Bay, warning that emergency services would not respond in evacuated zones. Hundreds of residents complied as conditions worsened. The Wellington Region Emergency Management Office said swells were overtopping coastal roads, while wind gusts near 100 kph were recorded at the Wellington Airport. In the wider Wairarapa region, gusts reached 137 kph alongside similarly large waves. Flights in and out of Wellington were disrupted, with several cancellations reported and one small aircraft blown over. Cook Strait ferry services operated by Interislander and Bluebridge were also suspended. MetService said average wave heights were around 6m, but peak waves nearly doubled that. The severe conditions were expected to ease today, though evacuation measures will remain in place. Road closures were enforced along much of the south coast and authorities urged the public to stay clear of exposed coastal areas. – Bernama

o Xi, Kim plant fir tree

neighbours’ “special relationship”, added Lim Eul-chul, a professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, while Beijing emphasised practical state-to-state ties and its initiatives for international order. “North Korea removed elements that could make it look like a subordinate, dependent or beneficiary party, and rewrote the relationship as one between equals,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “It amplified signals of solidarity.” Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan attended a performance of Chinese and North Korean songs, accompanied by Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, that highlighted “the value and closeness of DPRK-China friendship,” KCNA said. It was referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Chinese-North Korean relations had reached a “new historical starting point”, Xi said at a banquet hosted by Kim for the 65th anniversary of the neighbours’ friendship treaty, KCNA added. – Reuters

to the airport, waving flags and shouting friendship slogans. Earlier, the leaders jointly planted a fir tree in the grounds of a key political training school for party cadres, which Xinhua said symbolised “ever-renewing friendship”. On the second day of his visit to China’s only formal treaty ally, Xi had also visited Pyongyang’s Sino-Korean Friendship Tower that commemorates Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War, the agency added. Both agreed to strive for closer strategic communication through visits by high-level officials, KCNA said. Kim told Xi he would fully support the “One China principle”. Despite the expressions of goodwill, however, analysts saw contrasting priorities in the official summaries of the visit. While Xinhua detailed proposals ranging from high-level exchanges to trade and agriculture, along with restoration of transport links, KCNA cast the summit more broadly as a pact of equal partners, the analysts said. Pyongyang stressed regime dignity and the

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping wrapped up yesterday his first visit to North Korea in seven years, saying it had established a deeper, more comprehensive understanding yielding a clearer path for development of ties, the official Xinhua news agency said. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Xi agreed to expand cooperation in the areas of politics, economy and culture at a summit in Pyongyang that opened a new chapter in ties, the North’s official KCNA news agency said. “The mutual understanding between China and North Korea has become deeper and more comprehensive, and the direction of future development has become clearer and more defined,” Xi told his hosts at a luncheon before his departure. Kim waved both hands as Xi’s plane taxied down the tarmac, in footage from China’s state broadcaster CCTV, after an enthusiastic send off by Pyongyang residents, who lined the road

Kim (centre left) and Xi (centre right) inspecting an honour guard at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Monday. – AFPPIC/KCNA VIA KNS

US$100,000 H-1B visa fee unlawful, rules court BOSTON: A federal judge on Monday struck down a US$100,000 (RM405,955) fee President Donald Trump imposed on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, concluding that it constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorised. president was authorised to impose under federal immigration law, which gives him the power to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals when he deems it “detrimental to the interests of the United States”.

The judge cited the Supreme Court’s February ruling striking down Trump’s sweeping tariffs he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies. Under the logic of the justices’ decision in that case, Trump similarly had no authority under immigration law to levy a tax, Sorokin said. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers in a statement said the Trump administration is confident Sorokin’s order will be reversed on appeal. “President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America’s best interests, and that is exactly what he did,” she said.

But Sorokin concluded that the fee was not a penalty but a tax that the Republican president lacked any authorisation from Congress to issue and that the State Department and US Citizenship and Immigration Services could not implement. “Here, the substance and application of the US$100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called,” wrote Sorokin.

District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September that dramatically raised the cost of obtaining H-1B visas, which tech companies in particular rely heavily on to bring on foreign workers. The administration argued the fee constituted a lawful monetary penalty that the