Australia has announced a significant increase in the financial requirement for international student visas, aiming to control record migration and address concerns over student exploitation.

The new rule, effective from Friday, mandates international students to demonstrate savings of at least A$29,710 ($19,576) to qualify for a visa. This is the second increase in about seven months, following a previous hike to A$24,505 from A$21,041 in October.

These changes come amid broader efforts to tighten student visa rules, as the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in 2022 triggered a surge in migration, contributing to the strain on Australia’s rental market. In March, the government also increased English language requirements for student visas, and has been implementing policies to prevent students from prolonging their stay through various loopholes.

In addition, the government has sent warning letters to 34 education providers regarding “non-genuine or exploitative recruitment practices.” Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil indicated that these institutions could face significant penalties if found guilty of misconduct. “Dodgy providers have no place in our international education sector. These actions will help weed out the bottom feeders in the sector that seek to exploit people and trash the reputation of the sector,” she said.

International education is a major contributor to Australia’s economy, valued at A$36.4 billion ($24 billion) in 2022/23. However, the rapid rise in migration, primarily driven by international students, has led to increased rental costs across the country. According to government data, net immigration rose by 60% to a record 548,800 in the year ending September 30, 2023.

The government is now seeking to reduce migration rates significantly, aiming to cut the current intake by half over the next two years. “We are significantly reducing migration levels – we are in the middle of the biggest drop in migration numbers in Australia’s history, outside of war or pandemic,” O’Neil stated.

These changes reflect the government’s broader strategy to manage migration, maintain a sustainable rental market, and ensure that the international education sector operates with integrity.

(economictimes.indiatimes.com)

President Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a new six-year term on Tuesday at a Kremlin ceremony that was boycotted by the United States and a number of other Western countries due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Putin, in power as president or prime minister since 1999, begins his new mandate more than two years after he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, where Russian forces have regained the initiative after a series of reversals and are seeking to advance further in the east.

At 71, Putin dominates the domestic political landscape. On the international stage, he is locked in a confrontation with Western countries he accuses of using Ukraine as a vehicle to try to defeat and dismember Russia.

“For Russia, this is the continuation of our path, this is stability – you can ask any citizen on the street,” Sergei Chemezov, a close Putin ally, told Reuters before the ceremony.

“President Putin was re-elected and will continue the path, although the West probably doesn’t like it. But they will understand that Putin is stability for Russia rather than some sort of new person who came with new policies – either cooperation or confrontation even,” he said.

Putin in March won a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election from which two anti-war candidates were barred on technical grounds.

His best known opponent, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony a month earlier, and other leading critics are in jail or have been forced to flee abroad.

The United States and other Western countries stayed away from Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony.

“No, we will not have a representative at his inauguration,” Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesperson, said on Monday.

“We certainly did not consider that election free and fair but he is the president of Russia and he is going to continue in that capacity.”

Britain, Canada and most European Union nations also decided to boycott the swearing-in, but France said it would send its ambassador.

Ukraine said the event sought to create “the illusion of legality for the nearly lifelong stay in power of a person who has turned the Russian Federation into an aggressor state and the ruling regime into a dictatorship.”

(hindustantimes.com)

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday (May 06) attended a China-France – EU trilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Expressing his delight in meeting with Macron and von der Leyen again, President Xi noted that France is the first stop of his overseas visit this year, and that the trilateral meeting amplifies the Europe-wide significance of this visit.

China always approaches its relations with the European Union (EU) from a strategic and long-term perspective, and regards Europe as an important dimension in its major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and an important partner on its path toward Chinese modernization, Xi said.

In an X post, the EU President said that that she had met the Chinese President for the third time in just over one year that they had an ‘open and honest exchange on points  where we see eye-to-eye and on points where we have differences… Our topics ranged from geopolitical issues to climate change and of course our economic relations’.

The Chinese President arrived in Paris on Sunday for a state visit to France at the invitation of President Macron and attended a welcome ceremony held by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at Les Invalides in Paris on Monday.

This is the second state visit by China’s head of state to France in five years and coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

France is the first leg of Xi’s three-European country tour, which will later take him to Serbia and Hungary at the invitations of President Aleksandar Vucic of the Republic of Serbia and President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary.

Xi’s entourage includes his wife Peng Liyuan, Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and foreign minister.