While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, May 28, 2025
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The US State Department is preparing to expand its social media vetting of foreign students.
PHOTO: REUTERS
US halts scheduling of new student visa appointments
President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants as the State Department prepares to expand social media vetting of foreign students, according to an internal cable seen by Reuters on May 27.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the cable that the department plans to issue updated guidance on social media vetting of student and exchange visitor applicants after a review is completed, and advised consular sections to halt the scheduling of such visa appointments.
The move comes as the Trump administration has sought to ramp up deportations and revoke student visas as part of its wide-ranging efforts to fulfill his hardline immigration agenda.
In the cable, first reported by Politico, Mr Rubio said appointments that have already been scheduled can proceed under the current guidelines, but available appointments not already taken should be pulled down.
Desperate Palestinians storm US-backed aid centres
Thousands of Palestinians stormed on May 27 into sites where aid was being distributed by a foundation backed by the US and Israel, with desperation for food overcoming concern about biometric and other checks Israel said it would employ.
By late afternoon on May 27, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said it had distributed about 8,000 food boxes, equivalent to about 462,000 meals, after an almost three-month-old Israeli blockade of the war-devastated enclave.
In the southern city of Rafah, which is under full Israeli army control, thousands of people including women and children, some on foot or in donkey carts, flocked towards one of the distribution sites to receive food packages.
Trump says Russia’s Putin ‘playing with fire’ in fresh jab
US President Donald Trump warned Vladimir Putin on May 27 that he was “playing with fire,” launching a fresh broadside at his Russian counterpart over stalled Ukraine peace efforts.
Mr Trump’s latest comments come after he called the Kremlin leader “CRAZY” over the weekend following a mass Russian air attack on Kyiv, and warned that Moscow risked new sanctions.
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social network on May 27.
Webb telescope captures deep view of ancient galaxies
The James Webb space telescope’s deepest view of a single target yet depicts spinning arcs of light that are galaxies from the universe’s distant past, the European Space Agency said May 27.
The new image took the world’s most powerful telescope more than 120 hours to capture, making it the longest Webb has ever focused on a single target.
It is also “Webb’s deepest gaze on a single target to date”, the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement, making the image one of the deepest ever captured of the cosmos.
Man arrested over Liverpool parade crash
A 53-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving and driving while unfit through drugs after a car ploughed into a crowd of Liverpool fans during a Premier League title parade, injuring more than 50, British police said.
Eleven victims remained in hospital in a stable condition on May 27, police said, adding that they all appeared to be recovering well.
British police believe the incident, in a packed Liverpool city centre on May 26, was isolated and not an act of terrorism.
