While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, May 23, 2025
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More than 27 per cent of Harvard’s enrollment was made up of foreign students in the 2024-25 academic year.
PHOTO: AFP
US govt revokes Harvard’s right to enroll foreign students
Donald Trump’s administration on May 22 revoked Harvard’s right to enroll foreign nationals – more than a quarter of the student body – in an escalation of the president’s fight against the prestigious university.
The university in Cambridge, Massachusetts quickly slammed the move as “unlawful” and said it would cause “serious harm” to both the campus and the country as a whole.
Mr Trump is furious at Harvard – which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners – for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.
“Effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor (SEVIS) Programme certification is revoked,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the Ivy League institution, referring to the main system by which foreign students are permitted to study in the US.
Trump’s ‘genocide’ image shows Congo, not South Africa
REUTERS
US President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on May 21 as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Mr Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In fact, the video, published by Reuters on Feb 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma.
G-7 to pressure Russia if it resists Ukraine ceasefire
REUTERS
Group of 7 finance ministers agreed on May 22 to “maximise pressure” on Russia, including through further sanctions, if it resists efforts towards a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“If such a ceasefire is not agreed, we will continue to explore all possible options, including options to maximise pressure such as further ramping up sanctions,” a final communique, following the group’s meeting in Canada, said.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stepped up in recent weeks, with Russian and Ukrainian officials holding their first face-to-face talks in more than three years last week in Istanbul.
Two dead in fiery plane crash on California neighbourhood
Two people were killed when a small plane crashed onto a California neighbourhood before dawn on May 22, destroying a home and setting more than a dozen cars on fire.
At least 10 houses were hit by debris and cars on both sides of one street went up in flames when the Cessna 550 slammed into the ground spewing burning jet fuel everywhere in a part of San Diego that is home to military families.
San Diego Fire Department Assistant Chief Dan Eddy told reporters one house had been badly damaged, but that no one on the ground had been seriously hurt, with the two dead aboard the plane.
Dubai eatery gets three Michelin stars in first for Indian cuisine
PHOTOS: TRESIND STUDIO.COM
An Indian restaurant in Dubai was awarded the maximum three Michelin stars on May 22, marking the first time the prestigious honour has been given to Indian cuisine anywhere in the world.
The crowd burst into cheers and applause as it was revealed that upscale eatery Tresind Studio had been granted the three stars, along with another Dubai restaurant – FZN by Bjorn Frantzen.
It is the first time restaurants in the United Arab Emirates received the top Michelin rating.
