Foreign News
UK announces rise in salary threshold for foreign workers’ visas
The British government has announced a package of measures to cut net migration to the United Kingdom, including plans to raise the minimum salary required for foreign workers to be eligible for a work visa.
The measure aims at raising the minimum salary migrants to the UK must earn in a job by a third after record net migration in 2022 piled pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to act.
High levels of legal migration have for more than a decade dominated Britain’s political landscape, and Sunak has promised to gain more control after lawmakers in his Conservative Party criticised his record ahead of an election expected next year. Successive Conservative-led governments have promised to cut migration – once targeting a net figure of less than 100,000.
Interior Minister James Cleverly said on Monday the government would raise the minimum salary threshold for foreign skilled workers to 38,700 pounds ($48,800), from its current level of 26,200 pounds ($33,000), reform the list of jobs where exceptions are made due to shortages, and toughen rules on whether workers can bring their families.
“Migration to this country is far too high and needs to come down, and today we are taking more robust action than any other government before,” Cleverly told lawmakers. “This package of measures will take place from next spring.”
The measures could lead to new disputes with business owners who have struggled to hire workers in recent years given Britain’s persistently tight labour market and the end of free movement from the European Union following Britain’s departure from the bloc.
Annual net migration to the UK hit a record of 745,000 last year and has stayed at high levels since, data showed last month.
“This package plus our reduction in student dependents will mean around 300,000 fewer people will come in future years than have come to the UK last year,” Cleverly said.
The leaders of the Brexit referendum campaign argued that leaving the EU would give Britain greater control of its borders, and many who voted to leave cited high migration and the pressure they believed it put on public services as factors in their decision.
But in recent years, Britain has opened visa schemes for people in Ukraine and former colony Hong Kong, while companies in sectors such as engineering, construction and catering have called on the government to allow them to hire international staff to offset labour shortages.
The data showed overall immigration in 2022 at about 1.16 million, offset by emigration of 557,000.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in May that 925,000 of those arriving in 2022 were non-EU nationals, 151,000 came from the EU and 88,000 were British citizens.
It estimated that in 2022 under the special visa schemes, there were 114,000 long-term arrivals from Ukraine and 52,000 from Hong Kong.
Net migration to Britain in 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, was 329,000.
Sunak has also pledged to crack down on irregular migration after tens of thousands of people arrived on small boats across the English Channel from continental Europe in recent years.
(Aljazeera)
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, fulfilling a campaign pledge and a long-cherished goal of some conservatives.
Accusing the agency of “breath-taking failures”, the Republican president vowed to return the money it controls to individual states.
“We’re going to shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said, although the White House acknowledged that closing the agency outright would require an act of Congress. The move is already facing legal challenges from those seeking to block the agency’s closure as well as sweeping cuts to its staff announced last week.
Surrounded by children seated at school desks in the White House on Thursday, Trump said “the US spends more money on education by far than any other country”, yet he added that students rank near the bottom of the list.
The White House stated that his administration would move to cut parts of the department that remain within legal boundaries.
The executive order is likely to face legal challenges, like many of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal government.
At the signing ceremony, Trump praised Linda McMahon, whom he appointed to lead the department, and expressed his hope she would be the last secretary of education.
He said he would find “something else” for her to do within the administration.
After Trump signed the order, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy announced plans to bring legislation aimed at closing the department.
But Republicans hold a slim 53-47 majority in the Senate, and closing a federal department would require 60 votes, making such a goal a longshot.
But even if the department is not formally closed, the Trump administration could decimate its funding and staff as it has done with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which subsequently stopped many of its programmes and humanitarian work.
The text of the executive order does not include specifics on what actions the administration will take and which programmes might be axed.
It orders McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department and give authority of such matters to state and local governments.
It also directs her to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely”.
Established in 1979, the education department administers student loans and runs programmes that help low-income students.
But Trump has accused it of indoctrinating young people with racial, sexual, and political material.
Most US children attend public schools, which are free and run by local officials. A common misconception is that the federal education department operates US schools and sets curriculum, but that is primarily done by states and local districts.
And a relatively small percentage of funding for primary and secondary schools – about 13% – comes from federal funds. Most of the money comes from state and local taxes.
The agency also plays a prominent role in administering and overseeing the federal student loans used by millions of Americans to pay for higher education.
Soon after she was sworn in, McMahon sent the department’s 4,400 employees a memo titled “Our Department’s Final Mission”, a possible reference to Trump’s aim to shut the department.
“This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students,” she wrote. “I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete; we will be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future.”
Earlier reports suggested Trump would look to end some of the department’s programmes and send others to different departments, such as the Treasury, something that still may happen but wasn’t made clear in his executive order.
America’s largest teachers’ union recently decried Trump’s plans, saying he “doesn’t care about opportunity for all kids”.
In its statement, the American Federation of Teachers said: “No-one likes bureaucracy, and everyone’s in favour of more efficiency, so let’s find ways to accomplish that.
“But don’t use a ‘war on woke’ to attack the children living in poverty and the children with disabilities.”
For more than 40 years, conservatives have complained about the department and floated ideas to abolish it.
Just two years after it was established by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, his Republican replacement, Ronald Reagan, led calls to undo it.
It is the smallest agency in the president’s cabinet and takes up less than 2% of the total federal budget.
Some of those staff have already been affected by the Trump administration’s sweeping workforce cuts, led by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
Nearly 2,100 people at the agency are set to be placed on leave from Friday.
Efforts by Doge to slash federal spending and radically restructure – or simply abolish – many government agencies have been overseen by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
[BBC]
At least 12 people have been killed after a plane crashed off the Caribbean coast of Honduras on Monday evening, officials said.
The aircraft – operated by Honduran airline Lanhsa – crashed into the sea within a minute of take-off from the island of Roatán.
The Honduran national police and fire department separately said five people had been rescued, while one person is yet to be found.
The cause of the crash is not yet known, but Roatán’s mayor told local media it wasn’t because of the weather, which was normal. The Honduran Civil Aeronautics Agency said an investigation was under way.
The Jetstream 32 aircraft had taken off from the island’s Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport at 18:18 local time (00:18 GMT on Tuesday), and was bound for Golosón International Airport in La Ceiba on the Honduran mainland.
Civil aviation official Carlos Padilla said, quoted by AFP news agency, that the plane “made a sharp turn to the right of the runway and fell into the water”.
In a statement on social media, the government expressed “solidarity” with the families of the victims.
“The Government of Honduras deeply regrets the tragic accident in Roatán and joins in the national mourning,” it added.
Following the crash, Honduran President Xiomara Castro “immediately activated” the country’s emergency committee, comprised of all emergency services including the military, police, fire department, Red Cross and the Ministry of Health.
Writing on X, she said the committee team was “working tirelessly” to provide assistance.
“May God protect people’s lives,” Castro added.
Videos shared by officials on social media showed rescue teams working in darkness along a rocky coastline, with small boats and stretchers.
In a post on X accompanied by photos, the Honduran armed forces said survivors with injuries were taken to a hospital in the city of San Pedro Sula by air force planes.
According to local media reports, among the dead was well-known Honduran musician Aurelio Martinez Suazo.
Suazo was a member of the Garifuna, a people of mixed indigenous and Afro-Caribbean descent originating from the island of St Vincent which has a distinct musical style.
[BBC]
Harvard University has announced that it is making tuition free for families who earn less than $200,000 (£154,000) a year.
For families earning less than $100,000, Harvard will also cover expenses like housing and health insurance.
The move is aimed at making Harvard more affordable for middle-income families, and it comes as the Trump administration targets university funding as a part of a crackdown on diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.
“Putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth,” said Harvard President Alan Garber.
The policy – which will begin in the 2025 to 2026 academic year – will help “make a Harvard College education possible for every admitted student”, Garber added.
The Ivy League school said the move will allow roughly 86% of US families to qualify for Harvard’s financial aid.
The median household income in the US was $80,000 in 2023, according to the US Census.
A number of elite universities in the US have taken similar steps in recent years, including the University of Pennsylvania and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which also have free tuition for families making less than $200,000.
Harvard had previously made all university costs, including housing and medical care, free for families with incomes under $85,000.
The average price of a private university in the US for those living on campus is $58,000 per academic year, according to the Education Data Initiative. The average cost of college has more than doubled since 2001, the research group found.
The financial aid expansions come as the Trump administration has threatened to pull funding from universities over diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, research and coursework that they allege is a form of racial discrimination.
Under Trump, the Department of Education has said it is investigating 52 universities across the country for alleged “racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities” as Trump attempts to get rid of DEI programmes.
The Trump administration has already pulled $400m in grants and contracts from Columbia University, alleging the Ivy League school failed to prevent antisemitism on campus as protests grew over Israel’s war in Gaza.
Last year, the US Supreme Court voted to overturn affirmative action. The practice favoured individuals in disadvantaged groups to help eliminate discrimination against marginalised applicants during the enrollment process and increase diversity among students.
Universities across the US have reported a decline in racial diversity since the court’s decision.
[BBC]
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