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It is the latest move by the Trump administration in a campaign against US universities and international students: a decision to revoke the visas of Chinese students, who number in the hundreds of thousands in the United States.

The US secretary of state has also announced the suspension of interviews for new student visa applicants – and an increase in the vetting of their social media postings.

With China being the second-biggest source of international students in the US after India, the reduction in revenues for American schools and universities is expected to be heavy.

US President Donald Trump has already cut funding to Harvard University.

How are academia and research likely to be affected in the US – and around the world?

Presenter:

James Bays

Guests:

Clay Harmon – Executive director of the Association of International Enrollment Management

Alexandra Miller – Immigration lawyer and senior adviser to Vecina, a non-profit group advocating for immigrant justice

Josef Gregory Mahoney – Professor of politics and international relations, East China Normal University

Where’s the line between sharing a culture and stealing it? In a globalised world, borrowing is easy – but honoring is harder. We explore everything from re-branded recipes to re-imagined identities. What’s at stake when heritage becomes a trend?

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Fadi Kattan – Chef and author
Richie Richardson – Professor at Cornell University
Nikki Apostolou – Content creator

Russia has launched its largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine since the war began more than three years ago.

After the missiles came a war of words as United States President Donald Trump lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin on social media.

And he criticised Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks after the Ukrainian president condemned what he called “the silence of America”.

So was that a warning the US may be ready to walk away from the talks on a ceasefire?

And is a decision by Ukraine’s allies to scrap range restrictions on arms sent to Kyiv, a “dangerous” move as Moscow claims?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Mark Storella – former US ambassador and deputy assistant secretary of state in the first Trump administration

Alexey Muraviev – associate professor of national security and strategic studies at Curtin University

Aaron Gasch Burnett – senior fellow at the Democratic Strategy Initiative, a political think tank

The Madrid Group has convened in Spain’s capital for a fifth time, in a meeting attended by major European and Arab nations.

Pressure on Israel this year has been ramped up, with Spain calling for an arms embargo on Israel and the imposition of sanctions on individuals who obstruct a two-state solution to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The United Kingdom has paused trade talks and sanctioned a number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Canada and France have also threatened punitive measures.

And the European Union – Israel’s biggest trade partner – is reviewing its landmark Association Agreement covering trade and political dialogue.

But after 20 months of Israel’s destruction of Gaza, why is this happening now?

And without changes on the ground for Palestinians, are these actions anything more than diplomatically symbolic?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Lynn Boylan – Member of European Parliament, and chair of the delegation of relations with Palestine

Mouin Rabbani – Non-resident fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies

Saul Takahashi – Former deputy head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in occupied Palestine

With a battered economy and a restless population, Iran is as desperate as the United States to come together, Johns Hopkins University Professor Vali Nasr argues.

Nasr told host Steve Clemons that US President Donald Trump’s administration is eager to reach an arms control deal with Iran, and Iran is eager to grow economically. “Both of them have arrived, after 40 some years, at a juncture where they need to change the direction of their relationship,” Nasr said.

Join the conversation on Nasr’s latest book, Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, which explains how Iran’s anti-Americanism “is not ideological or theological”.

At least 260 miners have been brought to the surface in South Africa after being stuck underground at a gold mine for 24 hours.

Africa is at the centre of a rising demand for minerals and precious metals.

Lithium is essential to the transition away from fossil fuels, used for batteries in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies.

But in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rights groups continue to denounce the dangerous working conditions of children in artisanal mines, particularly for cobalt.

So, are the continent’s critical minerals at a critical juncture? And what will be the impact of the global scramble for Africa’s natural resources?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Claude Kabemba – Executive director of Southern Africa Resource Watch

Christopher Vandome – Senior research fellow at Chatham House Africa Programme

Maurice Carney – Co-founder and executive director, Friends of the Congo

In Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp, three Rohingya artists are defying cultural erasure. Through painting, music, and photography, they preserve the memory of a people long persecuted in Myanmar. This Talk to Al Jazeera special looks beyond the headlines of displacement and genocide investigations into the creative resistance of a stateless community. As Myanmar continues to deny them recognition, these artists are fighting back with colour, sound, and story, refusing to let their heritage disappear.

US President Donald Trump is once again taking aim at trading partners of the United States. This time it’s the European Union.

The US president is now threatening to impose a 50-percent tariff on all goods from the EU starting June 1. If he follows through, that will mean much higher import taxes on the EU’s hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of exported goods.

So is Europe about to pay a high price for not settling with Trump sooner? Or will Trump’s tariffs – now his signature move – backfire for US manufacturing?

Presenter: Tom Mcrae

Guests:

Paolo von Schirach, President, Global Policy Institute

Will Hutton, President, Academy of Social Sciences.

Brian Wong, Fellow, Centre on Contemporary China and the World

Israel has a long history of dismissing any legitimate criticism it faces as “anti-Semitic”.

So, how can anyone challenge Israel’s war on Gaza or its military raids in the occupied West Bank, without running the risk of being called anti-Semitic?

Or is this an easy way of shutting down any debate about Israel’s occupation?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Phyllis Bennis – Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and international adviser at Jewish Voice for Peace

Saba-Nur Cheema – Political scientist at Goethe University Frankfurt

Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz Newspaper

US President Trump’s relentless attacks on institutions, the rule of law and the press have left many fearing for the future of American democracy. So is the United States sliding into authoritarianism?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to one of the pre-eminent historians of fascism, Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

United States debt has long been considered the safest of all safe havens.
But, Washington has just lost its pristine reputation as a borrower.
Moody’s has downgraded the nation from its top-notch AAA rating, becoming the last of the big three agencies to do so.
The ratings agency has cited the United States’s growing debt – now at $36 trillion, almost 120 percent of gross domestic product – and rising debt service costs.
Against this backdrop, President Donald Trump is pushing what he calls the “one big, beautiful bill”.
Critics warn his tax cut package could add trillions more to the already ballooning deficit.

US President Donald Trump announces his latest defence plan: The Golden Dome.

Estimated at a cost of $175bn, it is designed to shoot down advanced missiles headed towards the United States.

Using both ground and space to detect incoming projectiles, it will far surpass a similar system used in Israel known as the Iron Dome.

But critics say it could prove ineffective and upset the balance of world power.

So, might the scheme lead to the militarisation of space and threaten the global order?

And could there be other motives behind Trump’s announcement?

Presenter:

Elizabeth Puranam

Guests:

Michael O’Hanlon, Senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution

Youngshik Bong, Research fellow at the Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies

Marina Miron, Post-doctoral researcher at the war studies department at King’s College London

Israel is facing condemnation from some of its strongest allies over its increasing aggression in Gaza.

The UK is cancelling new trade talks and the EU is reviewing old agreements, while both are imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The two powers say they cannot stand by while Israel expands military operations, increases air strikes and starves Palestinians in Gaza with its total blockade.

But critics are asking why they did not step in before.

Will the new measures be imposed?

And most importantly: Will any of this change the reality on the ground for the Palestinians?

Presenter:

Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:

James Moran – Former EU ambassador to Egypt and Jordan

Yossi Mekelberg – Senior consulting fellow at Chatham House

Zaid Belbagi – Managing partner of Hardcastle Advisory and political commentator

The United Nations has called this the most devastating humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world.

Killings, rapes and famine are affecting millions of people. What will happen to the people of Sudan if things don’t change? And why is this crisis being mostly ignored by the international community?

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Elbashir Idris – Political affairs analyst
Bayadir Mohamed-Osman – Activist and poet
Omer Elnaiem – Head of UNHCR Africa content hub

The US-Israeli plan to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, amid the use of starvation as a weapon of war, enables Israel to “force the ethnic cleansing of a huge part of Gaza’s population”, argues Matt Duss, the executive vice president of the Center for International Policy.

United States President Donald Trump visited the Middle East, which saw a shift in US policy on Yemen, Iran, and Syria.

Duss tells host Steve Clemons that the Democratic Party would be wise to learn from Trump’s foreign policy. “The Democrats have completely left the antiwar, pro-diplomacy, pro-peace lane open for Donald Trump to fill,” he says.

It took three years to get officials from Ukraine and Russia in the same room.

But President Vladimir Putin, who proposed the meeting, did not go to Istanbul and the talks ended in less than 90 minutes.

The result: an agreement for a large-scale prisoner exchange, talks about their presidents meeting, and both sides pushing their vision of a future ceasefire.

Yet, diplomacy is not narrowing the great gap between Russia and Ukraine.

So, is President Putin agreeing to further talks to avoid more sanctions?

And with Russia steadily advancing on the battlefield, can President Zelenskyy afford to push for peace without further compromise?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Peter Zalmayev – Executive director at Eurasia Democracy Initiative

Pavel Felgenhauer – Independent defence and Russian foreign policy analyst

Anatol Lieven – Director of the Eurasia Program at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

United States President Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East this week is his first international trip since he started his second term. Conspicuously absent from his itinerary, however, was Washington’s closest ally in the region: Israel.

In the US and Israeli media, the apparent snub has fuelled talk of a growing rift between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Contributors:
Diana Buttu – Human rights lawyer and analyst
Dana Mills – Writer, +972 magazine and Local Call
Jeremy Scahill – Cofounder, Drop Site News

On our radar:

Tariq Nafi reports on the killing this week of one of Gaza’s best-known journalists – and why it represents a new low in Israel’s unparalleled war on the press.

Are India’s news channels helping or harming?

The tit-for-tat conflict between India and Pakistan lasted only a week before a ceasefire deal was reached, but it was long enough to provide an insight into the role the media might play in a longer war.

We speak with Indian journalist Hartosh Singh Bal about mainstream media under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government – from misinformation to hate speech – and the alternative news outlets trying to provide the antidote.

Featuring:
Hartosh Singh Bal – Executive editor, The Caravan magazine

More than a trillion dollars worth of investments were pledged during the US president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week.

The US is preparing to lift decades-long sanctions on Syria, and could be close to a nuclear deal with Iran.

Previous US presidents might have been expected to make a stop in Egypt, Jordan or Israel.

But notably Trump’s deal-making tour did not include those countries.

So, are the Gulf nations now in sync with the US on some of the biggest challenges in the region?

And is Trump re-shaping the Middle East or is it the Gulf states that will dictate future US foreign policy?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Giorgio Cafiero – CEO at Gulf State Analytics, a geopolitical risk consultancy

Hassan Barari – Professor of international affairs at Qatar University

Alon Pinkas – Former ambassador and consul general of Israel in New York and a columnist at the Independent

United States President Donald Trump has signed several economic deals on his visit to the Gulf region.

One of the biggest deals was signed in Qatar, where Boeing secured its largest-ever order of wide-body jets from Qatar Airways.

Doha also promised to invest more than $10bn in the Al Udeid Air Base, one of the US’s biggest military facilities in the world.

Trump says he’s forging a future with the Middle East defined by commerce, not chaos. But could that mean regional stability and security are now taking a back seat?

And how likely is it that the US president would throw US weight behind ending the devastating war in Gaza?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Faisal al-Mudahka – Editor-in-chief, Gulf Times

Andreas Krieg – Senior lecturer, King’s College London’s School of Security Studies

Paul Musgrave – Associate professor of government, Georgetown University in Qatar