Thursday, January 15, 2026

Level 4 self-driving cars may come to Europe next year, says Nvidia executive

By Pascale Davies

Published on 15/01/2026 - EURONEWS

Euronews Next sat down with Nvidia's vice president of the automotive team and spoke about how AI is changing the gears of self-driving cars, what it will mean for Europe, what we would do when we commute, and how it may change infrastructure.

Partial autonomous driving may come to Europe this year, and more advanced self- driving cars could arrive on the continent as soon as next year, vice president of Nvidia's automotive team, Ali Kani, told Euronews Next in an interview.

The chip leader and artificial intelligence (AI) giant revealed last week that, instead of building its own car, it has developed the software that supplies the intelligence layer for autonomy that robotaxi companies can purchase and build on.

AI is becoming a key accelerator behind self-driving technology and could cut the costs of the technology. However, Europe in particular stands at a critical juncture in determining how and when self-driving cars will navigate its streets and there may need to be infrastructure changes.

“We need to go as fast as regulation allows us, and I think what we see is it's opening up,” Kani said.

“My guess is in Europe it might end up being the end of this year,” he said, referring to Level 2+ driving, which means that the driver is still responsible for monitoring the driving environment, but the vehicle can steer, brake, and accelerate

As for Level 4, which means the vehicle operates completely autonomously under certain conditions and humans do not need to be ready to get involved, it could come in 2027, Kani said.

Trials are already being announced in major European cities, including London, though the timeline for full regulatory clearance depends on how well the systems perform in real-world conditions.

Europe currently allows Level 2 systems universally and has already approved Level 3 for controlled conditions. But this is not without its challenges.

This week, it was reported that Mercedes-Benz was pausing its Drive Pilot, an “eyes off” conditionally automated driving feature that was available in Europe and the US, according to the German publication Handelsblatt.

Nvidia announced last week that it will use its new technology in a new robotaxi alliance between Lucid, Uber, and Nuro.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz, which also works with Nvidia, said it will launch a new advanced driver-assistance system in the US this quarter that will let vehicles operate autonomously under driver supervision. Nvidia’s founder and CEO Jensen Huang said the Mercedes-Benz technology will come to Europe and Asia in Q2 of this year.

Safety first

One of the biggest hurdles for deploying autonomous vehicles in Europe is the different regulations across different countries

But Nvidia’s technology can cleverly swerve the various laws, as while the core end-to-end model is consistent globally, the rules-based safety stack is customised for each country’s driving requirements.

Kani said that the company also has a different philosophy from its competitors, which is key to safety.

“Some other players talk about how we want to make sure we drive better than a human.

“We don't architect our system like that. We actually think of it in terms of how do we design this system so it doesn't ever cause an accident,” he said.

Nvidia achieves this by first, by using diverse sensor sets, so that if one camera isn’t working, there are other sensor options.

Secondly, it runs two stacks simultaneously: an end-to-end AI model alongside a dedicated safety stack that acts as a type of guardian. The stacks refer to a linear data structure that stores and manages data.

“The foundation is that two things are running, and the safety stack will make sure you never make a mistake. That means the AI model on its own is not something we depend on. We have a Safety Guard built into the system,” Kani said.

Nvidia’s Drive AV software recently earned a five-star safety rating from the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) in the Mercedes-Benz CLA, which is a notable accomplishment for a first-time production autonomous vehicle stack.

The long road

In five to 10 years, the Nvidia executive said one of the main challenges will be “long tail scenarios”—unexpected situations that systems haven't encountered before.

Such anincident occurred in December, when the robotaxi service Waymo was suspended for hours as vehicles struggled to read malfunctioning stoplights amid a power outage in San Francisco. Those in the driverless vehicles then found themselves stuck at darkened traffic lights.

One possible incident in the future could occur on European country roads. While Kani admitted he didn’t know much about the continent's road infrastructure, he said that he doesn’t think there would need to be a major overhaul for Europe’s roads to accommodate autonomous vehicles, but changes may be needed in more rural areas.

Kani said that while Nvidia’s technology can adapt to existing conditions on roads, he suggested it could be harder for autonomous vehicles to pull over on small, narrow country roads, as there is no shoulder.

“If that happens to be the case that on these country roads, there really is nowhere for you to pull over, you really have to stop in the lane. That's not safe because then there's another car that comes,” Kani said.

But despite these potential scenarios, there are many reasons to be optimistic about autonomous driving.

Kani said that self-driving vehicles make roads safer as human error or fatigue while driving is eliminated. But the vehicles could also reshape urban planning and how we manage our time.

He said an autonomous car could drop you off, go back home, and then pick you up when needed, effectively getting rid of the need for parking lots and using the space for society’s other needs, such as housing.

“You can just redesign a city so that we have more space for people to live and put parking lots further away,” Kani said.

For him personally, he is most excited about what he would do while commuting to work. He said he has a second home an hour and 40 minutes away from the Nvidia office.

With an autonomous vehicle, he said he could work in the car, or on longer journeys, or even travel overnight and sleep on the journey and arrive at the destination in the morning.

“I just feel like there are so many things we could do with our time if we had that [autonomous driving], and I would love that," he said.

“So I'm looking forward to that when we get there.”

Islamophobia

India shuts Kashmir medical college – after Muslims earned most admissions

Hindu groups insisted that Muslims shouldn’t benefit from institutions funded by Hindu charity.

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

Women supporters of right-wing Hindu groups shout slogans demanding revocation of admissions at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu, outside the residence of the the governor of Indian-administered Kashmir on December 27, 2025 [Channi Anand/ AP Photo]

By Al Jazeera Staff
15 Jan 2026

India has shut down a medical college in Indian-administered Kashmir in an apparent capitulation to protests by right-wing Hindu groups over the admission of an overwhelming number of Muslim students into the prestigious course.

The National Medical Commission (NMC), a federal regulatory authority for medical education and practices, on January 6 revoked the recognition of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute (SMVDMI), located in Reasi, a mountainous district overlooking the Pir Panjal range in the Himalayas, which separates the plains of Jammu from the Kashmir valley.

Of the 50 pupils who joined the five-year bachelor’s in medicine (MBBS) programme in November, 42 were Muslims, most of them residents of Kashmir, while seven were Hindus and one was a Sikh. It was the first MBBS batch that the private college, founded by a Hindu religious charity and partly funded by the government, had launched.

Admissions to medical colleges across India, whether public or private, follow a centralised entrance examination, called the National Entrance Examination Test (NEET), conducted by the federal Ministry of Education’s National Testing Agency (NTA).

More than two million Indian students appear for NEET every year, hoping to secure one of approximately 120,000 MBBS seats. Aspirants usually prefer public colleges, where fees are lower but cutoffs for admission are high. Those who fail to meet the cutoff but meet a minimum NTA threshold join a private college.

Like Saniya Jan*, an 18-year-old resident of Kashmir’s Baramulla district, who recalls being overwhelmed with euphoria when she passed the NEET, making her eligible to study medicine. “It was a dream come true – to be a doctor,” Saniya told Al Jazeera.

When she joined a counselling session that determines which college a NEET qualifier joins, she chose SMVDMI since it was about 316km (196 miles) from her home – relatively close for students in Kashmir, who often otherwise have to travel much farther to go to college.

Saniya’s thrilled parents drove to Reasi to drop her off at the college when the academic session started in November. “My daughter has been a topper since childhood. I have three daughters, and she is the brightest. She really worked hard to get a medical seat,” Saniya’s father, Gazanfar Ahmad*, told Al Jazeera.

But things did not go as planned

Supporters of right-wing Hindu groups protesting against the governor of Indian-administered Kashmir, demanding that admissions to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence be revoked, in Jammu on Saturday, December 27, 2025 [Channi Anand/ AP Photo]

‘No business being there’

As soon as local Hindu groups found out about the religious composition of the college’s inaugural batch in November, they launched demonstrations demanding that the admission of Muslim students be scrapped. They argued that since the college was chiefly funded from the offerings of devotees at Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, a prominent Hindu shrine in Kashmir, Muslim students had “no business being there”.

The agitations continued for weeks, with demonstrators amassing every day outside the iron gates of the college and raising slogans.

Meanwhile, legislators belonging to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – which has been accused of pursuing anti-Muslim policies since coming to power in 2014 – even wrote petitions to Kashmir’s lieutenant governor, urging him to reserve admissions in SMVDMI only for Hindu students. The lieutenant governor is the federally appointed administrator of the disputed region.

In the days that followed, their demands escalated to seeking the closure of the college itself.

As the protests intensified, the National Medical Commission on January 6 announced that it had rescinded the college’s authorisation because it had failed to “meet the minimum standard requirements” specified by the government for medical education. The NMC claimed the college suffered from critical deficiencies in its teaching faculty, bed occupancy, patient flow in outpatient departments, libraries and operating theatres. The next day, a “letter of permission”, which authorised the college to function and run courses, was withdrawn.

Hindu pilgrims on their way to the Vaishno Devi shrine rest under a shade and wait for transport outside a railway station on a hot day in Jammu, India, Wednesday, June 12, 2019. Far-right Hindu groups argue that because the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute is funded by donations from Hindu believers, the presence of Muslims as the majority in the student body is offensive to them [Channi Anand/ AP Photo]

‘The college was good’

But most students Al Jazeera talked to said they did not see any shortcomings in the college and that it was well-equipped to run the medical course. “I don’t think the college lacked resources,” Jahan*, a student who only gave her second name, said. “We have seen other colleges. Some of them only have one cadaver per batch, while this college has four of them. Every student got an opportunity to dissect that cadaver individually.”

Rafiq, a student who only gave his second name, said that he had cousins in sought-after government medical colleges in Srinagar, the biggest city in Indian-administered Kashmir. “Even they don’t have the kind of facilities that we had here,” he said.

Saniya’s father, Ahmad, also told Al Jazeera that when he dropped her off at the college, “everything seemed normal”.

“The college was good. The faculty was supportive. It looked like no one cared about religion inside the campus,” he said.

Zafar Choudhary, a political analyst based in Jammu, questioned how the medical regulatory body had sanctioned the college’s authorisation if there was an infrastructural deficit. “Logic dictates that their infrastructure would have only improved since the classes started. So we don’t know how these deficiencies arose all of a sudden,” he told Al Jazeera.

Choudhary said the demand of the Hindu groups was “absurd” given that selections into medical colleges in India are based on religion-neutral terms. “There is a system in place that determines it. A student is supposed to give preference, and a lot of parameters are factored in before the admission lists are announced. When students are asked for their choices, they give multiple selections rather than one. So how is it their fault?” he asked.

Al Jazeera reached out to SMVDMI’s executive head, Yashpal Sharma, via telephone for comments. He did not respond to calls or text messages. The college has issued no public statement since the revocation of its authorisation to offer medical courses.

Supporters of right-wing Hindu groups shout slogans demanding the revocation of admissions at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence in Jammu on Saturday, December 27, 2025 [Channi Anand/ AP Photo]
‘They turned merit into religion’

Meanwhile, students at SMVDMI have packed their belongings and returned home.

Salim Manzoor*, another student, pointed out that Indian-administered Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, also had a medical college where Hindu candidates are enrolled under a quota reserved for them and other communities that represent a minority in the region.

The BJP insists it never claimed that Muslim students were unwelcome at SMVDMI, but encouraged people to recognise the “legitimate sentiments” that millions of Hindu devotees felt towards the temple trust that founded it. “This college is named after Mata Vaishno Devi, and there are millions of devotees whose religious emotions are strongly attached to this shrine,” BJP’s spokesman in Kashmir, Altaf Thakur, told Al Jazeera. “The college recognition was withdrawn because NMC found several shortcomings. There’s no question of the issue being about Hindus and Muslims.”

Last week, Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, announced that SMVDMI students would not be made to “suffer due to NMC’s decision” and they would be offered admissions in other colleges in the region. “These children cleared the National Entrance Examination Test, and it is our legal responsibility to adjust them. We will have supernumerary seats, so their education is not affected. It is not difficult for us to adjust all 50 students, and we will do it,” he said.

Abdullah condemned the BJP and its allied Hindu groups for their campaign against Muslims joining the college. “People generally fight for having a medical college in their midst. But here, the fight was put up to have the medical college shut. You have played with the future of the medical students of [Kashmir]. If ruining the future of students brings you happiness, then celebrate it.”

Tanvir Sadiq, a regional legislator belonging to Abdullah’s National Conference party, said that the university that the medical college is part of received more than $13m in government aid since 2017 – making all Kashmiris, and not donors to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine – stakeholders. “This means that anyone who is lawfully domiciled in [Indian-administered Kashmir] can go and study there. In a few decades, the college would have churned out thousands of fresh medical graduates. If a lot of them are Muslims today, tomorrow they would have been Hindus as well,” he told Al Jazeera.

Nasir Khuehami, who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association, told Al Jazeera the Hindu versus Muslim narrative threatened to “communalise” the region’s education sector. “The narrative that because the college is run by one particular community, only students from that community alone will study there, is dangerous,” he said.

He pointed out that Muslim-run universities, not just in Kashmir but across India, that were recognised as minority institutions did not “have an official policy of excluding Hindus”.

Back at her home in Baramulla, Saniya is worried about her future. “I appeared for a competitive exam, which is one of the hardest in India, and was able to get a seat at a medical college,” she told Al Jazeera.

“Now everything seems to have crashed. I came back home waiting for what decision the government will take for our future. All this happened because of our identity. They turned our merit into religion.”

SEE

Hinduism Is Fascism

'Unusual and aggressive': FBI raid on Washington Post reporter's home sparks press freedom alarm

Search of journalist Hannah Natanson's home comes amid lawsuits against major outlets, tighter Pentagon media rules and cuts to public broadcasting under President Trump.

The journalist was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor, an official says. / AP

If the byproduct of Wednesday's raid on a Washington Post journalist's home is to deter probing reporting of government action, the Trump administration could hardly have chosen a more compelling target.

Hannah Natanson, nicknamed the “federal government whisperer” at the Post for her reporting on President Donald Trump's changes to the workforce, had a phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch seized in the search of her Virginia home, the newspaper said.

A warrant for the raid said it was connected to an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials, said Matt Murray, the Post's executive editor, in an email to his staff. The Post was told that Natanson and the newspaper are not a target of the investigation, he said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the search was done at the request of the Defense Department and that the journalist was “obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.”

RelatedTRT World - 'Dark day for press freedom': Pentagon reporters turn in their badges after rejecting new rules

Government raids to homes of journalists highly unusual

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, has been working on press freedom issues for a decade and said a government raid on a journalist's home is so unusual he couldn't remember the last time it happened. He said it can't help but have a chilling effect on journalism.

“I strongly suspect that the search is meant to deter not just that reporter but other reporters from pursuing stories that are reliant on government whistleblowers,” Jaffer said. “And it's also meant to deter whistleblowers.”

In a first-person piece published by the Post on Christmas Eve, Natanson wrote about how she was inundated with tips when she posted her contact information last February on a forum where government employees were discussing the impact of Trump administration changes to the federal workforce.

She was contacted by 1,169 people on Signal, she wrote. The Post was notably aggressive last year in covering what was going on in federal agencies, and many came as a result of tips she received — and was still getting. “The stories came fast, the tips even faster,” she wrote.

Natanson acknowledged the work took a heavy toll, noting one disturbing note she received from a woman she was unable to contact. “One day, a woman wrote to me on Signal, asking me not to respond,” she wrote. “She lived alone, she messaged, and planned to die that weekend. Before she did, she wanted at least one person to understand: Trump had unraveled the government, and with it, her life.”

Natanson did not return messages from The Associated Press. Murray said that “this extraordinary, aggressive action is deeply concerning and raises profound questions and concern around the constitutional protections for our work.”

The action “signals a growing assault on independent reporting and undermines the First Amendment,” said Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at the advocacy group PEN America. Like Jaffer, he believes it is intended to intimidate.

Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary at the beginning of his first term, said the concerns are premature. If it turns out that Natanson did nothing wrong, then questions about whether the raid was an overreach are legitimate, said Spicer, host of the political news show “The Huddle” on streaming services.

“If Hannah did something wrong, then it should have a chilling effect,” he said.

A law passed in 1917 makes it illegal for journalists to possess classified information, Jaffer said. But there are still questions about whether that law conflicts with First Amendment protections for journalists. It was not enforced, for example, when The New York Times published a secret government report on US involvement in Vietnam in 1971.

“It’s the government’s prerogative to pursue leakers of classified material,” the Post said in an editorial. “Yet journalists have First Amendment rights to gather and publish such secrets, and the Post also has a history of fighting for those freedoms.”

Not the first action taken against the press

The raid was made in context of a series of actions taken against the media during the Trump administration, including lawsuits against The New York Times and the BBC. Most legacy news organisations no longer report from stations at the Pentagon after they refused to sign on new rules restricting their reporting set by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Funding for public broadcasting has been choked off due to Trump's belief that its news coverage leaned left.

Some news outlets have also taken steps to be more aligned with the administration, Jaffer said, citing CBS News since its corporate ownership changed last summer. The Washington Post has shifted its historically liberal opinion pages to the right under owner Jeff Bezos.

The Justice Department over the years has developed, and revised, internal guidelines governing how it will respond to news media leaks. In April, Bondi issued new guidelines saying prosecutors would again have the authority to use subpoenas, court orders and search warrants to hunt for government officials who make “unauthorised disclosures” to journalists.

The moves rescinded a policy from President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration that protected journalists from having their phone records secretly seized during leak investigations.

“Leaking classified information puts America’s national security and the safety of our military heroes in serious jeopardy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X. “President Trump has zero tolerance for it and will continue to aggressively crack down on these illegal acts moving forward.”

The warrant says the search was related to an investigation into a system engineer and information technology specialist for a government contractor in Maryland who authorities allege took home classified materials, the Post reported. The worker, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, is accused of printing classified and sensitive reports at work and some were found at his Maryland home, according to court papers.

China urges Canada to ‘deepen cooperation’ against ‘interference’ as premiers set to meet

Meeting comes after Canadian prime minister arrives in Beijing to hold meetings with Chinese president, premier

Berk Kutay Gokmen |15.01.2026 - TRT WORLD

ISTANBUL

China on Thursday urged Canada to “deepen cooperation” against "interference" and enhance bilateral relations as the premiers of the two countries are set to meet in Beijing.

Ahead of a meeting between China's Premier Li Qiang and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand that Beijing is willing to “strengthen communication with Canada,” according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Beijing is willing to “enhance trust, eliminate interference, and deepen cooperation with Canada, to bring bilateral relations forward on a steady and sound track in solid strides under the new circumstances,” Wang said.

Carney reached China on Wednesday for a four-day visit, marking the first trip to China by a Canadian premier in eight years.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had last visited China in 2017.

During his trip, Carney is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li, and other government and business leaders.

According to a Canadian statement, the meetings will aim to elevate engagement on "trade, energy, agriculture, and international security."

Canada and China established diplomatic relations in 1970, and the bilateral trade volume stood at around $67 billion at the end of 2024.

More deaths than births in Europe for the first time since 1918

Claire Lemaire
15 January 2026
BRUSSELS SIGNAL

For the first time since the end of the First World War, more people are dying than are being born in Europe.

That is according to figures published yesterday by France’s national statistical office, INSEE. The trend now affects the entire continent, including countries where fertility rates used to be relatively high.

In its annual demographic report, INSEE reported that deaths outnumbered births in Europe in 2025. It said that was not because of an exceptional rise in mortality but due to a sustained fall in births combined with an ageing population.

In France for instance, 651,000 people died in 2025 while 645,000 babies were born — a difference of 6,000. For the first time since the end of the Great War, the natural population balance turned negative.

“This is a very logical demographic evolution,” said Peter Vanden Houte, Chief Economist at ING Belgium, speaking to Brussels Signal today.

“Since the early 1970s, with the arrival of the contraceptive pill, the number of births in Europe has declined sharply,” he said. “The baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s has therefore gradually become the largest segment of the population.”

At the same time, he said, “the number of women who are of childbearing age has structurally declined,” while “in recent years we have also seen a significant increase in the age at which women have their first child.”

“All of this means that fewer children are being born, while among the post-war baby boomers, the number of deaths is increasing,” Vanden Houte said.

According to the INSEE figures, the shift is the result of long-term trends. Birth numbers have been declining almost continuously since 2007. Last year, the number of births fell to its lowest level since 1918, while deaths continued to rise as the large post-war generations reached older age.

The average number of children per woman has also dropped to levels not seen since 1918, according to INSEE. At the same time, deaths are increasing even in the absence of major health crises as the population grows older.

Similar demographic patterns are visible across Europe, including in regions that were long considered more resilient.

“It’s no secret that advanced Europe has aged very rapidly over the last 70 years… this is now visible across the whole continent” said Beata Javorcik, Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, speaking at a conference yesterday.

Fertility in Europe has fallen from around five children per woman 150 years ago to about two today. The same applies, she said, to eastern European Union member states, where fertility used to be higher than in the rest of the continent, but where the rates are now well below replacement.

As a result, the workforce is shrinking faster than the population as a whole, a trend that is already weighing on economic growth. “Demographic trends are already shaving off growth in GDP per capita,” Javorcik said.

Zsolt Darvas, a senior researcher at the Brussels-based Bruegel think-tank, confirmed that the “problem” was no longer limited to certain regions.

“It used to be said that demographic decline was mainly a southern European issue,” he said. “But eastern Europe is now even lower — lower than Italy or Spain, for that matter.”

According to Darvas, all advanced economies now have fertility rates well below replacement and are running at around 1.6 children per woman.

Even in Scandinavia, often cited as a positive model, social policies can soften the decline but cannot reverse it, Darvas added.

In countries that introduced financial aid and incentives for parents in the last years, such as Hungary for instance, fertility rates continue to decline, he said.

Chinese student numbers at Harvard rise despite Trump visa crackdown

By SCMP

Published Jan 15, 2026

Enrollment from mainland China grew 4.5% in 2025 even as Washington tightened vetting, revoked thousands of student visas

Students walk on campus at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., Nov. 19, 2025, as it opens a probe into individuals mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files recently released by Congress, after the documents showed a close relationship between its former president, Larry Summers, and the late convicted sex offender. Reuters-Yonhap

Enrollment at Harvard for Chinese students rose in the autumn from a year earlier, even as the Donald Trump administration moved to rein in visas for them and limit foreign enrollment and funding at the prestigious university.

The number of students from mainland China rose from 1,390 in autumn 2024 to 1,452 in autumn 2025 — an increase of 4.5 percent — according to Harvard data released on Friday.

Hong Kong student enrollment rose from 68 to 73, while enrollment from Macau, which is in the single digits, decreased.

The increase in Chinese students is notable as Harvard’s foreign student population had faced significant scrutiny in the early months of the second Trump administration, with U.S. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem publicly citing its engagement with China as a reason for the crackdown.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May said that the State Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would work to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students with Communist Party ties or in “critical fields” and to tighten vetting of applicants from mainland China and Hong Kong. Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have introduced measures in the past year to curb Chinese student access to the U.S., citing concerns over potential espionage.

Washington and Beijing have been locked in geopolitical fights on everything from technology to tariffs. Beijing, for its part, has issued study abroad warnings for its students against U.S. states that have imposed restrictions on engagement with China and accused Washington of disproportionate scrutiny of its nationals at U.S. borders.

Harvard, which has been supportive of its foreign students despite being the main target of the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape higher education, is continuing its fight against the administration with two legal challenges over funding cuts and foreign student enrollment restrictions pending a final outcome.

The administration’s campaign against Harvard started with a focus on alleged campus antisemitism but widened into an attack on diversity programmes and perceived political bias. Last year, it froze billions in research funding and blocked the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, demanding changes in governance, hiring and admissions.

David Weeks, co-founder and chief operating officer of Sunrise International, a firm that advises overseas universities on recruiting Chinese students, said that the increase was a “meaningful signal for Harvard and to a slightly lesser extent for U.S. higher education.”

Elite U.S. brands still have a strong gravitational pull, especially in China, Weeks said. “Many will apply to third-country options as hedges, but if they land their U.S. ‘reach’ school, they often still take it because the perceived long-term credential value is hard to match.”

Weeks added that Chinese students’ risk tolerance is higher than many observers assume.

“Overall Chinese enrollment in the U.S. is down from its 2019 peak, but that decline likely reflects the more risk-averse segment of Chinese students shifting to alternatives … Many Chinese families have lived through prior U.S.–China ‘lurch cycles’ like the 2018 trade war, so they evaluate shocks differently compared to markets like India,” he said.

Students walk past Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., Nov. 19, 2025, as it opens a probe into individuals mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files recently released by Congress, after the documents showed a close relationship between its former president, Larry Summers, and the late convicted sex offender. Reuters-Yonhap

Harvard saw a slight increase in overall foreign student enrollment compared with the autumn of 2024. The proportion of international students at Harvard in the autumn of 2025 rose slightly to 28.1 per cent, or 6,836 students — a roughly 1 per cent increase reflecting a gain of 43 foreign students.

While small, it is a change that goes against national trends. Foreign enrollment at U.S. universities overall declined by about 1 percent over a comparable period, while new foreign student enrollment fell by 17 percent, according to partial data from the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors report, which is sponsored by the State Department.

The second Trump administration has taken numerous steps to restrict international students, including new social media vetting procedures during visa processing, travel bans, threats to deport foreigners for expressing political speech and proposals to change the H-1B programme — a key work visa often used by international graduates.

On Monday, the State Department said it had revoked over 100,000 visas since Trump took office last January, among them some 8,000 student visas.

Trump has spoken out against Harvard, but in contrast to others in his administration, has voiced support for Chinese and other international students, calling foreign enrollment a business matter and saying he would accept 600,000 Chinese students.

Chinese students remain the largest foreign student group at Harvard. Nationwide, they are the second largest at about 266,000, behind students from India.

Since the rhetoric against them picked up last year, students from China have expressed mixed feelings towards going to the U.S., with some saying it did not change their plans, others looking elsewhere. Some note that it is difficult to take specific announcements seriously because of the frequency of policy changes.

It is not the first time they have been targeted. Under his first term, Trump issued a presidential proclamation restricting students with ties to certain universities in China from coming to the U.S.

Thousands march in Caracas calling for Maduro's release amid US military intervention

"Unity is not up for debate. Anyone conspiring against unity is conspiring against Venezuela, and everyone must contribute to it," a ruling party official says.

The march was organised by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). / AFP

TRT WORLD
2 hours ago

Thousands of demonstrators marched in Venezuela’s capital Caracas on Wednesday demanding the release of abducted President Nicolas Maduro following US air strikes.

The march was organised by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and drew large crowds carrying photographs of Maduro and former President Hugo Chavez, according to Venezuela News.

Addressing the rally, PSUV Vice President for Mobilisation Nahum Fernandez voiced full support for the government led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez and called for national unity.

“Unity is not up for debate,” Fernandez told the crowd. “Anyone conspiring against unity is conspiring against Venezuela. Everyone must contribute to this unity.”

Fernandez reiterated demands for Maduro’s release, stressing that the gathering was a protest rather than a celebration. “We want Maduro freed and Cilia to return. We demand that both return to the country,” he said, referring to First Lady Cilia Flores.

Separately, dozens of motorcyclists formed convoys along Caracas’ main thoroughfares, circling central areas of the capital to show support for Maduro.

Meanwhile, PSUV Secretary General Diosdado Cabello announced that educators would also take to the streets on Thursday to mark Teachers’ Day.

Speaking during a televised broadcast, Cabello said Venezuelans had been protesting since the first day of what he described as a US military attack, demanding the release of their leaders.

He added that teachers would march to call for Maduro’s freedom and the return of his wife to the country

Trump calls Minnesota's food stamp program ‘giant Democrat scam’

US president’s statement comes after federal judge blocked his administration from withholding $80M to administer SNAP food aid for people on low incomes

Kanyshai Butun |15.01.2026 - TRT/AA

ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump on Thursday called the food stamp program in the state of Minnesota, known as SNAP, a “giant Democrat scam,” following a federal judge’s decision to block his administration from withholding $80 million to administer the program.

"California, Illinois, New York, and so many other places are equally as bad. It’s all a giant Democrat scam, with protection from the fake news media," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

In Minnesota, investigations are underway into allegations of misuse of funds allocated under SNAP, particularly in Minneapolis, after federal authorities said that some businesses were not actually operating and were abusing federal funds.

“Does anybody believe that in Minneapolis (the state’s largest city), these are the food stamp businesses? There’s no food, there’s no cleanliness, there’s no service, there’s no nothing, except fraud,” said Trump.

“They get sent millions of dollars of taxpayer money, and laugh at how stupid the Americans are, but not anymore," he claimed.

Critics say that since Trump returned to office this January, his administration has used allegations of fraud with scant evidence as an excuse to cut off funding and cancel programs the Republican Party dislikes, or punish Democratic-led states. They say that in contrast, reports of corruption within Trump’s Cabinet and the executive office are never investigated.

“These people should be sent back to Somalia, or any other country from where they came,” Trump added.

Trump has long been critical of migrants from Somali and African migrants in general, and has used insulting language about the continent and its people, while saying there should be more white South African migrants and ones from “nice” countries “like Denmark (or) Switzerland.”

On Wednesday Trump said that his administration will suspend federal funding for sanctuary cities and states – which limit or deny cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law – starting Feb. 1, as part of its ongoing immigration crackdown.

The move follows the fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, an incident that has sparked a political backlash and calls for state officials to be involved in the FBI’s investigation.

Trump administration officials later described the victim, Renee Good, as a domestic terrorist.

US reinstates $2B in mental health, addiction funds after abrupt cuts

Restoration of money within 24 hours of announcing sweeping cuts is emblematic of Trump administration's aggressive, seemingly haphazard approach to spending

Seyit Kurt |15.01.2026 - TRT/AA

ISTANBUL

The US has reversed a decision to terminate nearly $2 billion in federal funding for mental health and addiction services, restoring grants less than a day after more than 2,000 programs nationwide were told their funding would end immediately, according to media reports.

An administration official confirmed late Wednesday that the funds were restored but did not explain the decision. The move followed intense bipartisan pressure from lawmakers, including a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that was signed by about 100 members of the US House of Representatives, according to The New York Times.

The funding termination notices were issued Tuesday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in a form letter, saying only that the services no longer aligned with the agency’s priorities, including “innovative programs and interventions that address the rising rates of mental illness and substance abuse conditions, overdose, and suicide.”

The cuts would have taken effect immediately.

Lawmakers said the move conflicted with congressional authority over spending, as under the US Constitution, Congress is supposed to have the “power of the purse.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the episode created “uncertainty and confusion” for families and health care providers and emphasized that Congress controls federal spending.

Several organizations reported abrupt losses before the reversal, including treatment providers, emergency medical services groups, and national mental health and addiction organizations.

Some grants were tied to programs reauthorized under the SUPPORT Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in December.

Since returning to the White House last January, Trump has taken an aggressive approach to cutting government programs, laying off thousands of workers and canceling long-standing programs with little or no notice, despite money already appropriated.

In many cases – such as workers maintaining the US nuclear weapons arsenal, last March – workers have been fired followed by efforts to quickly rehire them, apparently after it became clear how important their jobs were.

Critics have blasted the approach, saying it was done with no planning or understanding, and undermined vital government functions.

After spending most of 2025 approving Trump’s funding priorities without question, some congressional Republicans have started to buck the president, restoring funds to science and health programs that Trump targeted for elimination.

Perceived Threat From Big Business Growing

57% say "big government" is biggest threat to U.S. in the future; 37% say "big business" is

by Jeffrey M. Jones

January 15, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans still believe “big government” represents the biggest threat to the U.S. in the future, but the 57% saying so is down from percentages near 70% between 2013 and 2016. At the same time, 37% of Americans say “big business” is most threatening, essentially tying the high in Gallup’s trend. Just 5% of U.S. adults regard “big labor” as the greatest threat.

The current results are based on a Dec. 1-15 Gallup poll. Gallup first asked Americans to assess the threat posed by government, business and labor in 1965 and has done so periodically since.

Government has always been identified as the biggest threat, although the margins over business and labor were smaller in the earlier years of the trend than they have been since the 1980s. By then, concerns about government had risen to the majority level, dipping below 50% only once. The exception came in 2002 amid corporate accounting scandals that plagued Enron and other companies, when 38% chose big business and 47% big government.

In the 1960s, more Americans identified big labor rather than big business as the biggest threat — but in the 1970s and 1980s, the two were about even, each averaging around 20%. Since the 1990s, big government has typically been the clear majority response, with no more than 11% naming big labor and at least 21% naming big business as the biggest threat to the U.S.

Fewer Independents, Democrats See Government as Top Threat

Democrats’ and independents’ views of which entity poses the greatest threat have changed substantially over the past decade, with both groups showing double-digit increases in the percentages naming big business as the biggest threat and double-digit decreases for big government. Although down from 67% in 2016, a majority of independents (55%) still cite big government, compared with 40% naming big business (up from 26%). But Democrats’ top mention has switched from government (51%) to business (56%).

Republicans’ opinions have not changed meaningfully since 2016; they overwhelmingly identify big government (77%) as the biggest threat.

Throughout the past decade, no more than 7% of Americans in any party group have named big labor as the biggest threat.

One in Three See ‘Big Tech’ as Greatest Threat When Included

In 1965, Gallup could not have foreseen the influence that technology would come to have on U.S. society. This year, Gallup asked an alternative version of the question that included “big technology” as a fourth choice. This modified version of the trend question was asked in December among a nationally representative online sample using the Gallup Panel.

When included, big technology is viewed as the biggest threat by 32% of U.S. adults, ranking second to big government at 45% and ahead of big business at 20%, with only 3% choosing big labor.

With big technology included, six in 10 Republicans regard big government as the biggest threat, while 27% choose big technology. Big government also edges out big technology, 43% to 34%, among independents. Democrats divide fairly evenly in saying that big government (35%), big technology (34%) and big business (29%) represent the biggest threat to the U.S. in the future.

Bottom Line

As they have for six decades, Americans perceive big government as a bigger threat to the U.S. in the future than either big business or big labor. However, fewer identify big government as the top threat than did so in the 2010s; instead, a higher percentage say big business is, with the 37% doing so essentially matching the record high for that response. But when big technology is added as a choice, it eclipses big business for second place, although it still trails big government by a considerable margin.

Stay up to date with the latest insights by following @Gallup on X and on Instagram.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).

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