zlatiah

The United States has ordered consular offices to significantly expand their screening processes for student visa applicants, including through comprehensive social media investigations, to exclude people they deem to support terrorism.

It specifically targets new and renewing F, M and J student visa applications, providing explicit instructions for consular officers to conduct mandatory social media reviews digging into applicants’ lives online. Officers are directed to examine the social media of all students applying to a visa for evidence of activities the administration defines as a threat to national security or terrorism.

So I guess this is a thing for people who want to study/do research in the US now

Since this wasn't apparent the last time I asked... no, I'm actually not a US citizen or green card holder (permanent resident). Just happened to be in this country for a long time due to career reasons.

The massive changes in US research brought about by the new administration of President Donald Trump are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers. More than 1,200 scientists who responded to a Nature poll — three-quarters of the total respondents — are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. Europe and Canada were among the top choices for relocation.

The trend was particularly pronounced among early-career researchers. Of the 690 postgraduate researchers who responded, 548 were considering leaving; 255 of 340 PhD students said the same.

I have answered this poll myself; this is meant for scientists of all career-stages, so a lot of PhD students and postdocs along with faculty members.

I don't think the article is paywalled, but let me know if it is.

As title suggested. For context & as an example... there was something I wanted to investigate today, but the only primary information was from a 2023 Twitter (yup, before it became X) thread. The annoying part is that the crucial tweets got labelled as "sensitive content" so it's not even available on Wayback Machine

Harvard University, one of the nation’s wealthiest schools, on Monday joined the list of universities across the country imposing hiring freezes, citing the uncertainty created by President Trump’s threats to slash funding for higher education.

... [T]he step by Harvard, which has an endowment of more than $50 billion, illustrates the gravity of the situation facing higher education...

The email emphasized that the hiring pause was temporary, but also asked the leadership of Harvard units to “scrutinize discretionary and nonsalary spending.”

Paywall, tried to summarize the article the best I can. Try this link if you prefer to read the full article & don't have access to NYT

A prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s student encampment movement was arrested on Saturday night by federal immigration authorities who claimed they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney.

One of the agents told Greer by phone that they were executing a state department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil, who graduated last December, was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that too, according to the lawyer.

“Targeting a student activist is an affront to the rights of Mahmoud Khalil and his family. This blatantly unconstitutional act sends a deplorable message that freedom of speech is no longer protected in America. Furthermore, Khalil and all people living in the United States are afforded due process. A green card can only be revoked by an immigration judge, showing once again that the Trump administration is willing to ignore the law in order to instill fear and further its racist agenda,” ...

Thousands of researchers and their supporters, including recently fired federal workers, gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial here today to protest what they consider the antiscience actions of President Donald Trump in the nearly 7 weeks since he took office. The nation’s capital is just one of the many locations hosting the rally, called Stand Up for Science, with about 30 events nationwide and additional rallies outside the United States, bringing the expected total to more than 150 events.

At the Washington, D.C., event, protesters demanded an end to government censorship in scientific research, restoration of federal funding, reinstatement of federal employees, preservation of diversity and inclusion in science, and more. The crowd heard from more than a dozen speakers, including Senator Chris van Hollen (D–MD), former Representative Fred Upton (R–MI), and former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins.

Soft-paywall, although the article is still updating. Also see the organizers' website: https://standupforscience2025.org/

I was at the local rally this noon.

The key is 100% boycotting all services provided by a company. Wikipedia's list of Amazon product/services as reference (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_products_and_services).

Incidentally, I know entire neighborhoods that don't have other grocery stores besides Target/Whole Foods, not to mention that AWS is the cloud computing industry standard... As a personal example, my vet-prescribed cat foods are manufactured by Purina, a subsidary of Nestlé (needless to say, a separate but also extremely evil large corporation)

In an unprecedented move, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun mass terminations of research grants that fund active scientific projects because they no longer meet “agency priorities”.

At least 16 termination letters have already been sent out... And hundreds more will be coming, say two NIH officials, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

The agency, based in Bethesda, Maryland, has now asked its employees to review new and ongoing projects for any DEI activities and to place them in one of four categories: projects that solely support DEI-related activities (category one), projects that partially support these activities (category two), projects that do not support these activities but include some DEI-related language (category three) and projects that do not support any DEI activities (category four).

Mind you: this is an administration where the president had trouble differentiating between "transgenic" and "transgender" mice.

Soft-paywall. Try this Wayback Machine link if you can't access it

Assume that this is not a wannabee, but someone who, for example, already has a solid job offer from an EU country, and some cash for the relocation.